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THE    LETTERS    TO    THE 
SEVEN    CHURCHES    OF    ASIA 


THE  LETTERS  TO  THE 
SEVEN  CHURCHES  OF  ASIA 

AND  THEIR  PLACE  IN  THE  PLAN  OF 
THE  APOCALYPSE 


W.  M.  RAMSAY,  D.C.L.,  Litt.D.,  LL.D. 

PROFESSOR   OF   HUMANITY    IN    THE    UNIVERSITY   OF   ABERDEEN 


HODDER    &    STOUGHTON 

NEW  YORK 

GEORGE   H.    DORAN    COMPANY 


PREFACE. 

In  the  contact  of  East  and  West  originates  the 
movement  of  history.  The  historical  position  of 
Christianity  cannot  be  rightly  understood  except  in 
its  relation  to  that  immemorial  meeting  and  conflict. 
The  present  book  is  based  on  the  view  that  Christi- 
anity is  the  religion  which  associates  East  and  West 
in  a  higher  range  of  thought  than  either  can  reach 
alone,  and  tends  to  substitute  a  peaceful  union  for  the 
war  into  which  the  essential  difference  of  Asiatic  and 
European  character  too  often  leads  the  two  continents. 
So  profound  is  the  difference,  that  in  their  meeting 
either  war  must  result,  or  each  of  them  must  modify 
itself.  There  is  no  power  except  religion  strong 
enough  to  modify  both  sufficiently  to  make  a  peace- 
ful union  possible ;  and  there  is  no  religion  but 
Christianity  which  is  wholly  penetrated  both  with 
the  European  and  with  the  Asiatic  spirit — so  pene- 
trated that  many  are  sensitive  only  to  one  or  the 
other. 


vi  Preface 

Only  a  divine  origin  is  competent  to  explain  the 
perfect  union  of  Eastern  and  Western  thought  in 
this  religion.  It  adapted  itself  in  the  earliest  stages 
of  its  growth  to  the  great  Graeco-Aslatic  cities  with 
their  mixed  population  and  social  system,  to  Rome, 
not  as  the  Latin  city,  but  as  the  capital  of  the  Greek- 
speaking  world,  and  to  Corinth  as  the  halting-place 
between  Greek  Asia  and  its  capital.  Several  chapters 
of  the  present  book  are  devoted  to  an  account  of 
the  motley  peoples  and  manners  of  those  cities.  The 
adaptation  of  Christianity  to  the  double  nationality 
can  be  best  seen  in  the  Apocalypse,  because  there 
the  two  elements  which  unite  in  Christianity  are 
less  perfectly  reconciled  than  in  any  other  book  of 
the  New  Testament.  The  Judaic  element  in  the 
Apocalypse  has  been  hitherto  studied  to  the  entire 
neglect  of  the  Greek  element  in  it.  Hence  it  has 
been  the  most  misunderstood  book  in  the  New 
Testament. 

The  collision  of  East  and  West  throughout  history 
has  been  a  subject  of  special  interest  to  the  present 
writer  from  early  youth  ;  and  he  has  watched  for 
more  than  twenty-five  years  the  recent  revival  of 
the  Asiatic  spirit,  often  from  a  very  close  point  of 
view.     In  1897,   i"  ^  book  entitled  Impressions  of 


Preface  vii 

Turkey^  he  tried  to  analyse  and  describe,  as  he  had 
seen  it,  "  the  great  historic  movement "  through  which 
"  Mohammedanism  and  Orientalism  have  gathered 
fresh  strength  to  defy  the  feeling  of  Europe".  It 
is  now  becoming  plain  to  all  that  the  relation  of 
Asia  to  Europe  is  in  process  of  being  profoundly 
changed  ;  and  very  soon  this  will  be  a  matter  of 
general  discussion.  The  long-unquestioned  domin- 
ation of  European  over  Asiatic  is  now  being  put  to 
the  test,  and  is  probably  coming  to  an  end.  What 
is  to  be  the  issue?  That  depends  entirely  on  the 
influence  of  Christianity,  and  on  the  degree  to  which 
it  has  affected  the  aims  both  of  Christian  and  of 
non-Christian  nations :  there  are  cases  in  which  it 
has  affected  the  latter  almost  more  than  the  former. 
The  ignorant  European  fancies  that  progress  for  the 
East  lies  in  Europeanising  it.  The  ordinary  traveller 
in  the  East  can  tell  that  it  is  as  impossible  to  Euro- 
peanise  the  Asiatic  as  it  is  to  make  an  Asiatic  out 
of  a  European ;  but  he  has  not  learned  that  there 
is  a  higher  plane  on  which  Asia  and  Europe  may 
"mix  and  meet".  That  plane  was  once  in  an  im- 
perfect degree  reached  in  the  Grseco-Asiatic  cities, 
whose  creative  influence  in  the  formation  of  Roman 
and  modern  society  is  beginning  to  be  recognised  by 


vm  Preface 

some  of  the  latest  historical  students ;  and  the  new 
stage  towards  which  Christianity  is  moving,  and  in 
which  it  will  be  better  understood  than  it  has  been 
by  purely  European  thought,  will  be  a  synthesis  of 
European  and  Asiatic  nature  and  ideas. 

This  book  is  a  very  imperfect  essay  towards  the 
understanding  of  that  synthesis,  which  now  lies  before 
us  as  a  possibility  of  the  immediate  future.  How 
imperfect  it  is  has  become  clearer  to  the  writer,  as  in 
the  writing  of  it  he  came  to  comprehend  better  the 
nature  of  the  Apocalypse. 

The  illustrations  are  intended  to  be  steps  in  the 
argument.  The  Apocalypse  reads  the  history  and 
the  fate  of  the  Churches  in  the  natural  features,  the 
relations  of  earth  and  sea,  winds  and  mountains,  which 
affected  the  cities ;  this  study  distinguishes  some  of 
those  influences ;  and  the  Plates  furnish  the  evidence 
that  the  natural  features  are  not  misapprehended  in 
the  study. 

The  Figures  in  the  text  are  intended  as  examples 
of  the  symbolism  that  was  in  ordinary  use  in  the 
Greek  world  ;  the  Apocalypse  is  penetrated  with  this 
way  of  expressing  thought  to  the  eye ;  and  its  sym- 
bolic language  is  not  to  be  explained  from  Jewish 
models  only  (as  is  frequently  done).     It  was  written 


Preface  ix 

to  be  understood  by  the  Grseco- Asiatic  public ;  and 
the  Figures  prove  that  it  was  natural  and  easy  for 
those  readers  to  understand  the  symbolism.  Most 
of  the  subjects  are  taken  from  coins  of  the  Imperial 
period ;  and  hearty  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  Head  of 
the  British  Museum  for  casts  from  originals  under 
his  care.  If  the  style  of  the  coins  were  the  subject  of 
study,  photographic  reproductions  would  be  required. 
But  what  we  are  here  interested  in  is  the  method  of 
expressing  ideas  by  visible  forms  ;  and  line  drawings, 
which  bring  out  the  essential  facts,  are  more  useful 
for  our  purpose.  Examples  are  very  numerous,  and 
this  small  selection  gives  rather  the  first  than  the 
best  that  might  be  chosen. 

Thanks  are  due  to  Miss  A.  Margaret  Ramsay 
for  drawing  twenty-two  of  the  Figures,  to  MIs3 
Mary  Ramsay  for  two,  and  to  Mr.  John  Hay  for 
twelve. 

In  several  cases  it  is  pointed  out  that  the  spirit 
which  is  revealed  in  the  natural  features  of  the  city 
was  recognised  in  ancient  times,  being  expressed  by 
orators  in  counselling  or  flattering  the  citizens,  and 
becoming  a  commonplace  in  popular  talk.  It  is  right 
to  point  out  that  in  every  case  the  impressions,  gained 
first  of  all  immediately  from  the  scenery,  were  after- 


X  Preface 

wards  detected  in  the  ancient  writers  (who  usually 
express  them  in  obscure  and  elaborately  rhetorical 
style). 

The  writing  of  a  series  of  geographical  articles 
in  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible  greatly 
facilitated  the  preparation  of  the  present  book,  though 
the  writer  has  learned  much  since,  often  as  a  result 
of  the  study  required  for  those  articles. 

It  has  not  been  part  of  the  writer's  purpose  to 
describe  the  Seven  Cities  as  they  are  at  the  present 
day.  That  was  done  in  a  series  of  articles  by  Mrs. 
Ramsay  in  the  British  Monthly,  November,  1901, 
to  May,  1902,  better  than  he  could  do  it.  He  has 
in  several  places  used  ideas  and  illustrations  expressed 
in  the  articles,  and  some  of  the  photographs  which 
ware  used  in  them  are  here  reproduced  afresh. 

W.  M.  RAMSAY. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAQB 


Writing,  Travel,  and  Letters   among   the    Early 
Christians 


CHAPTER  n. 
Transmission  of  Letters  in  the  First  Century     ,       15 

CHAPTER  HI. 

The  Christian  Letters  and  Their  Transmission     ,      23 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches      •        •        •      35 

CHAPTER  V. 

Relation  of  the  Christian  Books  to  Contemporary 

Thought  and  Literature 50 


xii  Contents 


CHAPTER  VI. 

PAGB 

The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Letters     •        #        .      57 


CHAPTER  vn. 
Authority  of  the  Writer  of  the  Seven  Letters  .      74 

CHAPTER  vni. 
The  Education  of  St.  John  in  Patmos     ,        •        •      82 

CHAPTER  IX. 

The  Flavian  Persecution  in  the  Province  of  Asia 

AS  Depicted  in  the  Apocalypse  •        t        i        t      93 

CHAPTER  X. 

The  Province  of  Asia  and  the  Imperial  Religion  .     114 

CHAPTER  XI. 

The    Cities    of    Asia    as    Meeting-places    of    the 

Greek  and  the  Asiatic  Spirit      •        •        •        •    128 

CHAPTER  XII, 
The  Jev^^s  in  the  Asian  Cities    ,        .        ,        ,        ,     142 


Contents  xiii 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

PAGE 

The  Pagan  Converts  in  the  Early  Church     .        ,     158 
CHAPTER  XIV. 

The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia     .        .       •        .        •171 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Origin  of  the  Seven  Representative  Cities    .        ,    185 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Plan  and  Order  of  Topics  in  the  Seven  Letters  .     197 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Ephesus  :  the  City  of  Change  •        ,        ,        •        ,    210 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus  .        ,        ,    ajy 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
Smyrna  :   the  City  of  Life  .        ,        ,        •        •        •    »5i 


xiv  Contents 

CHAPTER  XX. 

PAOB 

The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Smyrna     ,        ,        ,    a68 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
Pergamum  :  the  Royal  City  :  the  City  of  Authority    281 

CHAPTER  XXn. 

The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Psrgamum        ,       .    291 

CHAPTER  XXni. 
Thyatira  :  Weakness  made  Strong    ....    316 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira,        ,       ,    327 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
Sardis:  the  City  of  Death        •       •       •       •       ,    354 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis      ,        ,        ,    369 


Contents  xv 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 

PAGE 

Philadelphia:  the  Missionary  City  .        ,        ,        ,    391 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Philadelphia  .        ,    401 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 

Laodicea:  the  City  of  Compromise    ....    413 

CHAPTER  XXX. 

The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Laodicea.        .        .    424 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 

Epilogue        •••*••.•,    431 
Notes     .       •       •       • 435 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Map  of  the  Province  Asia 


to  face  p. 


PLATES. 

I.  Ephesus. — FnoM  Seats  of  Great  Thka.re 
II.  Ephesus. — Stadium  and  Hill  of  St.  John 

III.  Temple,  Mosque  and  Hill  of  St.  John     . 

IV.  The  Crown  of  Smyrna. — Seen  from  the  North 
V.  Smyrna. — Trade  Route  Entering  the  City 

VI.  Pergamum. — North  Face  of  the  Hill 
VII.  Pergamum. — From  the  South      .        .        , 
VIII.  Thyatira. — From  the  West 
IX.  Thyatira. — Turkish  Cemetery  on  Acropolis 
X.  Sardis. — From  the  North    .... 
XI.  Sardis. — From  the  Pactolus  Glen  (West) 
XII.  Philadelphia. — From  the  Plain  .        ,        . 
XIU.  Outside  of  Philadelphia      .... 


XIV.  Laodicka. — Asopus    Valley    outside    Ephesian 
Gate 


XV.  Laodicea. — The  Ephesian  Gate  . 

XVI.  Laodicea. — From     the     North  :     Hierapolitan 
Gate 

I.,  III.,  photographs  by  Mr.  D.  G.  Hogarth  ;  II.  {v.  title) ;  IV. 
by  Rubellin,  Smyrna;  V.,  by  Rev.  J.  Murray,  Smyrna;  Vil.-IX 
by  Mrs.  Ra.-nsay. 


to  face 

P-  213 

1* 

214 

» 

2l5 

•1 

254 

•> 

266 

II 

282 

.. 

295 

)i 

3i3 

.. 

332 

.< 

355 

.. 

356 

.. 

306 

•1 

407 

II 

413 

II 

414 

„ 

416 

VI.,  X 

.-XII., 

,XIII. 

-XVL, 

xvili  Illustrations 


ILLUSTRATIONS  IN  THE  TEXT. 

FAOB 

1.  The  Ideal  Parthian  King 59 

2.  The  Parthian  King  Welcomed  Home  (42-65  a.d.)        .        ,  60 

3.  Parthian  Captives  under  Roman  Trophy  (116  a.d.)     ,        ,  6i 

4.  The  Sacrifice  on  Earth  and  in  Heaven  (100  a.d.)      •        .  63 

5.  DoMiTiAN  the  Persecutor        .....••  92 

6.  The  Goddess  Rising  out  of  the  Earth        •        •        .        •  104 

7.  Temple  of  Augustus  at  Pergamum        .        •        .        .        .  124 

8.  Ephesus  and  Sardis  Represented  by  Their  Goddesses      .  125 

9.  Sardis  First  Metropolis  of  Asia,  Lydia,  Hellenism  .        .  139 

10.  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Pergamum,  "  First  of  Asia  "    .        •        •  174 

11.  Conjectural  Map  of  Gulf  of  Ephesus         «        •        •        i  aia 

12.  Coin  of  Anatolian  Ephesus    •••••«•  220 

13.  Coin  of  Hellenic  Ephesus      •••••••  221 

14.  Coin  of  Ephesus  as  Arsinoe   ..•••••  226 

15.  Ephesus  th  ^  First  Landing-Placb 228 

16.  The  Sea-borne  Trade  op  Ephesus         •        •        •        •        •  229 

17.  Altar  of  Augustus  at  Ephesus     #•••••  231 

18.  The  Four  Temple-Wardenships     •#••*.  232 

19.  The  Goddess  of  Smyrna 259 

20.  The  River-God  Meles     .        .        • 263 

21.  The  Twin-Goddesses  Nemesis 265 

22.  The  Alliance  of  Smyrna  and  Thyatira        .        .        .       •  266 

23.  Caracalla  Adoring  the  God-Serpent  of  Pergamum    .        #  285 

24.  Obverse  of  Cistophorus  (Serpent  and  Cista  Mystica)      .  288 

25.  Reverse  op  Cistophorus  (Serpents  and  Bowcase)      .        .  289 

26.  The  Hero  op  Thyatira 318 

27.  Caracalla  Adoring  the  God  ov  Thyatira    •       •       •       •  319 


Illustrations 


XIX 


38.  The  Emperor  and  the  God  Supporting  the  Games 

29.  The  Thyatiran  Bronze-Smith  .        .        •        . 

30.  The  Alliance  of  Ephesus  and  Sardis  .        .        • 

31.  CESAREAN  Sardis  Suppliant  to  the  Emperor       . 

32.  The  Empress  as  the  Patron-Goddess  of  Sardis 

33.  The  Alliance  of  Philadelphia  and  Ephesus        • 

34.  The  Sun-God  of  Philadelphia        •        •        •        • 

35.  The  God  of  Laodicea 

36.  The  Alliance  of  Smyrna  and  Laodicea        .        • 


PAGE 

321 

325 
364 
366 
367 
393 

394 
418 

423 


ii  2,  7,  9,  10,  15,  17,  24-6,  33,  35  were  drawn  by  Mr,  John  Hay;  4,  23  by 
Miss  Mary  Ramsay  ;  the  rest  by  Miss  A.  Margaret  Ramsay  ;  6  is  taken  from 
Archdologische  Zeitting,  1853,  4  from  sketches  of  the  original  by  Mrs.  Ram- 
say, and  II  is  altered  from  Professor  BenndorPs  map ;  the  rest  are  from  coins. 


CHAPTER  I. 

WRITING,   TRAVEL,    AND   LETTERS    AMONG  THE    EARLY 
CHRISTIANS. 

Many  writers  on  many  occasions  have  perceived  and 
described  the  important  part  which  intercommunication 
between  the  widely  separated  congregations  of  early  Chris- 
tians, whether  by  travel  or  by  letter,  played  in  determining 
the  organisation  and  cementing  the  unity  of  the  Universal 
Church.^  Yet  perhaps  all  has  not  been  said  that  ought  to 
be  said  on  the  subject.  The  marvellous  skill  and  mastery, 
with  which  all  the  resources  of  the  existing  civilisation  were 
turned  to  their  own  purposes  by  St.  Paul  and  by  the 
Christians  generally,  may  well  detain  our  attention  for  a 
brief  space. 

Travelling  and  correspondence  by  letter  are  mutually  de- 
pendent. Letters  are  unnecessary  until  travelling  begins : 
much  of  the  usefulness  and  profit  of  travelling  depends  on 
the  possibility  of  communication  between  those  who  are 
separated  from  one  another.  Except  in  the  simplest  forms, 
commerce  and  negotiation  between  different  nations,  which 
are  among  the  chief  incentives  to  travelling  in  early  times, 
cannot  be  carried  out  without  some  method  of  registering 
thoughts  and  information,  so  as  to  be  understood  by  persons 
at  a  distance. 

Hence  communication  by  letter  has  been  commonly 
practised  from  an  extremely  remote  antiquity.    The  know- 

I 


I.  Writing,  Travel,  and  Letters 


ledge  of  and  readiness  in  writing  leads  to  correspondence 
between  friends  who  are  not  within  speaking  distance  of 
one  another,  as  inevitably  as  the  possession  of  articulate 
speech  produces  conversation  and  discussion.  In  order  to 
fix  the  period  when  epistolary  correspondence  first  began, 
it  would  be  necessary  to  discover  at  what  period  the  art 
of  writing  became  common.  Now  the  progress  of  discovery 
in  recent  years  has  revolutionised  opinion  on  this  subject. 
The  old  views,  which  we  all  used  to  assume  as  self-evident, 
that  writing  was  invented  at  a  comparatively  late  period  in 
human  history,  that  it  was  long  known  only  to  a  few  persons, 
and  that  it  was  practised  even  by  them  only  slowly  and  with 
difficulty  on  some  special  occasions  and  for  some  peculiarly 
important  purposes,  are  found  to  be  utterly  erroneous.  No 
one  who  possesses  any  knowledge  of  early  history  would 
now  venture  to  make  any  positive  assertion  as  to  the  date 
when  writing  was  invented,  or  when  it  began  to  be  widely 
used  in  the  Mediterranean  lands.  The  progress  of  discovery 
reveals  the  existence  of  various  systems  of  writing  at  a  re- 
mote period,  and  shows  that  they  were  familiarly  used  for 
the  ordinary  purposes  of  life  and  administration,  and  were 
not  reserved,  as  scholars  used  to  believe,  for  certain  sacred 
purposes  of  religion  and  ritual. 

The  discovery  that  writing  was  familiarly  used  in  early 
time  has  an  important  bearing  on  the  early  literature  of  the 
Mediterranean  peoples.  For  example,  no  scholar  would 
now  employ  the  argument  that  the  composition  of  the 
Iliad  and  the  Odyssey  must  belong  to  a  comparatively 
late  day,  because  such  great  continuous  poems  could  not 
come  into  existence  without  the  ready  use  of  writing — an 
argument  which  formerly  seemed  to  tell  strongly  against 
the  early  date  assigned  by  tradition  for  their  origin.    The 


THE  SEVEN  CHIT] 

PROVINCE 

B-Tpln-na-H 

PrcvincLdL  Soimdan 
Primojy  Grcuit 
Secondary  Circuits 
Sea.JU>utes 

Scale   of] 


^ 


ratmosg!)    »? 


^ 


'% 


^ 

V 


ijo  &.  JAcam  Kome 


THE  SEVEN  CHTJRCHZS  OF  THE 

PROVINCE  OF  ASIA 


£xplAiiAtioii 

Priimnp'  Grcuit 
Secondary  Qrcuits 
SeaJioiLtBs 


I 


Among  the  Early  Christians 


scholars  who  championed  the  traditional  date  of  those  great 
works  used  to  answer  that  argument  by  attempting  to 
prove  that  they  were  composed  and  preserved  by  memory 
alone  without  the  aid  of  writing.  The  attempt  could  not 
be  successful.  The  scholar  in  his  study,  accustomed  to  deal 
with  words  and  not  with  realities,  might  persuade  himself 
that  by  this  ingenious  verbal  reasoning  he  had  got  rid  of 
the  difficulty;  but  those  who  could  not  blind  themselves  to 
the  facts  of  the  world  felt  that  the  improbability  still  re- 
mained, and  acquiesced  in  this  reasoning  only  as  the  least 
among  a  choice  of  evils.  The  progress  of  discovery  has 
placed  the  problem  in  an  entirely  new  light.  The  difficulty 
originated  in  our  ignorance.  The  art  of  writing  was  indeed 
required  as  an  element  in  the  complex  social  platform  on 
which  the  Homeric  poems  were  built  up ;  but  no  doubt  can 
now  be  entertained  that  writing  was  known  and  familiarly 
practised  in  the  East  Mediterranean  lands  long  before  the 
date  to  which  Greek  tradition  assigned  the  composition  of 
the  two  great  poems, 

A  similar  argument  was  formerly  used  by  older  scholars 
to  prove  that  the  Hebrew  literature  belonged  to  a  later 
period  than  the  Hebrew  tradition  allowed;  but  the  more 
recent  scholars  who  advocate  the  late  date  of  that  liter- 
ature would  no  longer  allow  such  reasoning,  and  frankly 
admit  that  their  views  must  be  supported  on  other  grounds ; 
though  it  may  be  doubted  whether  they  have  abandoned 
as  thoroughly  as  they  profess  the  old  prejudice  in  favour 
of  a  late  date  for  any  long  literary  composition,  or  have 
fully  realised  how  readily  and  familiarly  writing  was  used 
in  extremely  remote  time,  together  with  all  that  is  implied 
by  that  familiar  use.  The  prejudice  still  exists,  and  it 
affects  the  study  of  both  Hebrew  and  Christian  literature. 


I.  Writing,  Travel,  and  Letters 


In  the  first  place,  there  is  a  general  feeling  that  it  is  more 
prudent  to  bring  down  the  composition  of  any  ancient  work 
to  the  latest  date  that  evidence  permits.  But  this  feeling 
rests  ultimately  on  the  fixed  idea  that  people  have  gradu- 
ally become  more  familiar  with  the  art  of  writing  as  the 
world  grows  older,  and  that  the  composition  of  a  work  of 
literature  should  not,  without  distinct  and  conclusive  proof, 
be  attributed  to  an  early  period. 

In  the  second  place,  there  is  also  a  very  strong  body  of 
opinion  that  the  earliest  Christians  wrote  little  or  nothing. 
It  is  supposed  that  partly  they  were  either  unable  to  write, 
or  at  least  unused  to  the  familiar  employment  of  writing  for 
the  purposes  of  ordinary  life;  partly  they  were  so  entirely 
taken  up  with  the  idea  of  the  immediate  coming  of  the 
Lord  that  they  never  thought  it  necessary  to  record  for 
future  generations  the  circumstances  of  the  life  and  death  of 
Jesus,  until  lapse  of  long  years  on  the  one  hand  had  shown 
that  the  Lord's  coming  was  not  to  be  expected  immediately, 
and  that  for  the  use  of  the  already  large  Church  some  record 
was  required  of  those  events  round  which  its  faith  and  hope 
centred,  while  on  the  other  hand  it  had  obscured  the  memory 
and  disturbed  the  true  tradition  of  those  important  facts. 
This  opinion  also  rests  on  and  derives  all  its  influence  from 
the  same  inveterate  prejudice  that,  at  the  period  in  question, 
writing  was  still  something  great  and  solemn,  and  that  it 
was  used,  not  in  the  ordinary  course  of  human  everyday  life 
and  experience,  but  only  for  some  grave  purpose  of  legisla- 
tion, government,  or  religion, intentionally  registering  certain 
weighty  principles  or  important  events  for  the  benefit  of 
future  generations.  Put  aside  that  prejudice,  and  the  whole 
body  of  opinion  which  maintains  that  the  Christians  at  first 
did  not  set  anything  down  in  writing  about  the  life  and 


Among  the  Early  Christians 


death  of  Christ — strong  and  widely  accepted  as  it  is,  dom- 
inating as  a  fundamental  premise  much  of  the  discussion  of 
this  whole  subject  in  recent  times — is  devoid  of  any  support. 

But  most  discussions  with  regard  to  the  origin,  force,  and 
spirit  of  the  New  Testament  are  founded  on  certain  postu- 
lates and  certain  initial  presumptions,  which  already  contain 
implicit  the  whole  train  of  reasoning  that  follows,  and 
which  in  fact  beg  the  whole  question  at  starting.  If  those 
postulates  are  true,  or  if  they  are  granted  by  the  reader, 
then  the  whole  series  of  conclusions  follows  with  unerring 
and  impressive  logical  sequence.  All  the  more  necessary, 
then,  is  it  to  examine  very  carefully  the  character  of  such 
postulates,  and  to  test  whether  they  are  really  true  about 
that  distant  period,  or  are  only  modern  fallacies  springing 
from  the  mistaken  views  about  ancient  history  that  were 
widely  accepted  in  the  eighteenth  and  most  part  of  the 
nineteenth  century. 

One  of  those  initial  presumptions,  plausible  in  appearance 
and  almost  universally  assumed  and  conceded,  is  that  there 
was  no  early  registration  of  the  great  events  in  the  begin- 
ning of  Christian  history.  This  presumption  we  must  set 
aside  as  a  mere  prejudice,  contrary  to  the  whole  character 
and  spirit  of  that  age,  and  entirely  improbable;  though,  of 
course,  decisive  disproof  of  it  is  no  longer  possible,  for  the 
only  definite  and  complete  disproof  would  be  the  production 
of  the  original  documents  in  which  the  facts  were  recorded 
at  the  moment  by  contemporaries.  But  so  much  may  be 
said  at  once,  summing  up  in  a  sentence  the  result  which 
arises  from  what  is  stated  in  the  following  pages.  So  far 
as  antecedent  probability  goes,  founded  on  the  general 
character  of  preceding  and  contemporary  Greek  or  Grseco- 
Asiatic  society,  the  first  Christian  account  of  the  circum- 


I.  Writing,  Travel,  and  Letters 


stances  connected  with  the  death  of  Jesus  must  be  presumed 
to  have  been  written  in  the  year  when  Jesus  died. 

But  the  objection  will  doubtless  be  made  at  once — If  that 
be  so,  how  can  you  account  for  such  facts  as  that  Mark  says 
that  the  Crucifixion  was  completed  by  the  third  hour  of  the 
day  (9  A.M.,  according  to  our  modern  reckoning  of  time), 
while  John  says  that  the  sentence  upon  Jesus  was  only 
pronounced  about  the  sixth  hour,  i.e.  at  noon.  The  reply 
is  obvious  and  unhesitating.  The  difference  dates  from 
the  event  itself.  Had  evidence  been  collected  that  night 
or  next  morning,  the  two  diverse  opinions  would  have 
been  observed  and  recorded,  already  hopelessly  discrepant 
and  contradictory. 

One  was  the  opinion  of  the  ordinary  people  of  that 
period,  unaccustomed  to  note  the  lapse  of  time  or  to  define 
it  accurately  in  thought  or  speech :  such  persons  loosely 
indicated  the  temporal  sequence  of  three  great  events,  the 
Crucifixion,  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  the  darkness,  by 
assigning  them  to  the  three  great  successive  divisions  of  the 
day — the  only  divisions  which  they  were  in  the  habit  of 
noticing  or  mentioning — the  third,  sixth,  and  ninth  hours. 
Ordinary  witnesses  in  that  age  would  have  been  non- 
plussed, if  they  had  been  closely  questioned  whether  full 
three  hours  had  elapsed  between  the  Crucifixion  and  the 
beginning  of  the  darkness,  and  would  have  regarded  such 
minuteness  as  unnecessary  pedantry,  for  they  had  never 
been  trained  by  the  circumstances  of  life  to  accuracy  of 
thought  or  language  in  regard  to  the  lapse  of  time. 
Witnesses  of  that  class  are  the  authority  for  the  account 
which  is  preserved  in  the  three  Synoptic  Gospels.  We 
observe  that  throughout  the  Gospels  of  Mark  and  Luke 
only  the  three  great  divisions  of  the  day — the  third,  sixth 


Among  the  Early  Christians 


and  ninth  hours — are  mentioned.  Matthew  once  mentions 
the  eleventh  hour,  xx.  9;  but  there  his  expression  does  not 
show  superior  accuracy  in  observation,  for  he  is  merely 
using  a  proverbial  expression  to  indicate  that  the  allotted 
season  had  almost  elapsed.  A  very  precise  record  of  time 
is  contained  in  the  Bezan  Text  of  Acts  xix.  9;  "from  the 
fifth  to  the  tenth  hour";  but  this  is  found  only  in  two 
MSS.,  and  is  out  of  keeping  with  Luke's  ordinary  looseness 
in  respect  of  time  and  chronology  ;2  and  it  must  therefore 
be  regarded  as  an  addition  made  by  a  second  century 
editor,  who  either  had  access  to  a  correct  source  of  informa- 
tion, or  explained  the  text  in  accordance  with  the  regular 
customs  of  Grseco-Roman  society. 

The  other  statement,  which  is  contained  in  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  records  the  memory  of  an  exceptional  man,  who 
through  a  certain  idiosyncrasy  was  observant  and  careful  in 
regard  to  the  lapse  of  time,  who  in  other  cases  noted  and 
recorded  accurate  divisions  of  time  like  the  seventh  hour 
and  the  tenth  hour  (John  i.  39,  iv.  6,  iv.  52).  This  man, 
present  at  the  trial  of  Jesus,  had  observed  the  passage  of 
time,  which  was  unnoticed  by  others.  The  others  would 
have  been  astonished  if  any  one  had  pointed  out  that  noon 
had  almost  come  before  the  trial  was  finished.  He  alone 
marked  the  sun  and  estimated  the  time,  with  the  same 
accuracy  as  made  him  see  and  remember  that  the  two 
disciples  came  to  the  house  of  Jesus  about  the  tenth  hour, 
that  Jesus  sat  on  the  well  about  the  sixth  hour,  that  the 
fever  was  said  to  have  left  the  child  about  the  seventh 
hour.  All  those  little  details,  entirely  unimportant  in 
themselves,  were  remembered  by  a  man  naturally  obser- 
vant of  time,  and  recorded  for  no  other  reason  than  that 
he  had  been  present  and  had  seen  or  heard. 


8  I.  Writing,  Travel,  and  Letters 

It  is  a  common  error  to  leave  too  much  out  of  count  the 
change  that  has  been  produced  on  popular  thought  and 
accuracy  of  conception  and  expression  by  the  habitual 
observation  of  the  lapse  of  time  according  to  hours  and 
minutes.  The  ancients  had  no  means  of  observing  pre- 
cisely the  progress  of  time.  They  could  as  a  rule  only 
make  a  rough  guess  as  to  the  hour.  There  was  not  even 
a  name  for  any  shorter  division  of  time  than  the  hour. 
There  were  no  watches,  and  only  in  the  rarest  and  most 
exceptional  cases  were  there  any  public  and  generally 
accessible  instruments  for  noting  and  making  visible  the 
lapse  of  time  during  the  day.  The  sun-dial  was  necessarily 
an  inconvenient  recorder,  not  easy  to  observe.  Conse- 
quently looseness  in  regard  to  the  passage  of  time  is  deep- 
seated  in  ancient  thought  and  literature,  especially  Greek. 
The  Romans,  with  their  superior  endowment  for  practical 
facts  and  ordinary  statistics,  were  more  careful,  and  the 
effect  can  be  traced  in  their  literature.  The  lapse  of  time 
hour  by  hour  was  often  noted  publicly  in  great  Roman 
households  by  the  sound  of  a  trumpet  or  some  other  device, 
though  the  public  still  regarded  this  as  a  rather  over- 
strained refinement — for  why  should  one  be  anxious  to 
know  how  fast  one's  life  was  ebbing  away?  Such  was 
the  usual  point  of  view,  as  is  evident  in  Petronius  §  26. 
Occasionally  individuals  in  the  Greek-speaking  provinces 
of  the  East  were  more  accurate  in  the  observation  of  time, 
either  owing  to  their  natural  temperament,  or  because  they 
were  more  receptive  of  the  Roman  habit  of  accuracy.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  progress  of  invention  has  made  almost 
every  one  in  modern  times  as  careful  and  accurate  about 
time  as  even  the  exceptionally  accurate  in  ancient  times, 
because  we  are  all  trained  from  infancy  to  note  the  time  by 


Among  the  Early  Christians 


minutes,  and  we  suffer  loss  or  inconvenience  occasionally 
from  an  error  in  observation.  The  use  of  the  trumpeter 
after  the  Roman  fashion  to  proclaim  the  lapse  of  time  is 
said  to  have  been  kept  up  until  recently  in  the  old  imperial 
city  of  Goslar,  where,  in  accordance  with  the  more  minute 
accuracy  characteristic  of  modern  thought  and  custom,  he 
sounded  every  quarter  of  an  hour. 

But  it  does  not  follow  that,  because  the  ancients  were 
not  accustomed  to  note  the  progress  of  the  hours,  therefore 
they  were  less  habituated  to  use  the  art  of  writing.  It  is 
a  mere  popular  fallacy,  entirely  unworthy  of  scholars,  to 
suppose  that  people  became  gradually  more  familiar  with 
writing  and  more  accustomed  to  use  it  habitually  in  ordinary 
life  as  time  progressed  and  history  continued.  The  con- 
trary is  the  case ;  at  a  certain  period,  and  to  a  certain  degree, 
,the  ancients  were  accustomed  to  use  the  art  familiarly  and 
readily ;  but  at  a  later  time  writing  passed  out  of  ordinary 
use  and  became  restricted  to  a  few  who  used  it  only  as  a 
lofty  possession  for  great  purposes. 

It  is  worth  while  to  mention  one  striking  example  to  give 
emphasis  to  the  fact  that,  as  the  Roman  Empire  decayed, 
familiarity  with  the  use  of  writing  disappeared  from  society, 
until  it  became  the  almost  exclusive  possession  of  a  few 
persons,  who  were  for  the  most  part  connected  with  religion. 
About  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century  before  Christ,  a 
body  of  mercenary  soldiers,  Greeks,  Carians,  etc.,  marched 
far  away  up  the  Nile  towards  Ethiopia  and  the  Sudan  in 
the  service  of  an  Egyptian  king.  Those  hired  soldiers  of 
fortune  were  likely,  for  the  most  part,  to  belong  to  the  least 
educated  section  of  Greek  society;  and,  even  where  they 
had  learned  in  childhood  to  write,  the  circumstances  of  their 
life  were  not  of  a  kind  likely  to  make  writing  a  familiar  and 


lo  I.  Writing,  Travel,  and  Letters 

ordinary  matter  to  them,  or  to  render  its  exercise  a  natural 
method  of  whiling  away  an  idle  hour.  Yet  on  the  stones 
and  the  colossal  statues  at  Abu  Simbel  many  of  them 
wrote,  not  merely  their  name  and  legal  designation,  but 
also  accounts  of  the  expedition  on  which  they  were  en- 
gaged, with  its  objects  and  its  progress. 

Such  was  the  state  of  education  in  a  rather  humble 
stratum  of  Greek  society  six  centuries  before  Christ.  Let 
us  come  down  eleven  centuries  after  Christ,  to  the  time 
when  great  armies  of  Crusaders  were  marching  across 
Asia  Minor  on  their  way  to  Palestine.  Those  armies  were 
led  by  the  noblest  of  their  peoples,  by  statesmen,  warriors, 
and  great  ecclesiastics.  They  contained  among  them  per- 
sons of  all  classes,  burning  with  zeal  for  a  great  idea, 
pilgrims  at  once  and  soldiers,  with  numerous  priests  and 
monks.  Yet,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  not  one  single  written 
memorial  of  all  those  crusading  hosts  has  been  found  in 
the  whole  country .^  On  a  rock  beside  the  lofty  castle  of 
Butrentum,  commanding  the  approach  to  the  great  pass  of 
the  Cilician  Gates — that  narrow  gorge  which  they  called 
the  Gate  of  Judas,  because  it  was  the  enemy  of  their  faith 
and  the  betrayer  of  their  cause — there  are  engraved  many 
memorials  of  their  presence ;  but  none  are  written ;  all  are 
mere  marks  in  the  form  of  crosses. 

In  that  small  body  of  mercenaries  who  passed  by  Abu 
Simbel  600  years  before  Christ,  there  were  probably  more 
persons  accustomed  to  use  familiarly  the  art  of  writing 
than  in  all  the  hosts  of  the  Crusaders;  for,  even  to  those 
Crusaders  who  had  learned  to  write,  the  art  was  far  from 
being  familiar,  and  they  were  not  wont  to  use  it  in  their 
ordinary  everyday  life,  though  they  might  on  great  occasions. 
In  those  1700  years  the  Mediterranean  world  had  passed 


Among  the  Early  Christians  ii 

from  light  to  darkness,  from  civilisation  to  barbarism,  so  far 
as  writing  was  concerned.  Only  recently  are  we  beginning 
to  realise  how  civilised  in  some  respects  was  mankind  in 
that  earlier  time,  and  to  free  ourselves  from  many  unfounded 
prejudices  and  prepossessions  about  the  character  of  ancient 
life  and  society. 

The  cumbrousness  of  the  materials  on  which  ancient 
writing  was  inscribed  may  seem  unfavourable  to  its  easy  or 
general  use.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that,  except  in 
Egypt,  no  material  that  was  not  of  the  most  durable  char- 
acter has  been  or  could  have  been  preserved.  All  writing- 
materials  more  ephemeral  than  stone,  bronze,  or  terra-cotta, 
have  inevitably  been  destroyed  by  natural  causes.  Only 
in  Egypt  the  extreme  dryness  of  climate  and  soil  has 
enabled  paper  to  survive.  Now  the  question  must  suggest 
itself  whether  there  is  any  reason  to  think  that  more  ephe- 
meral materials  for  writing  were  never  used  by  the  ancient 
Mediterranean  peoples  generally.  Was  Egypt  the  only 
country  in  which  writers  used  such  perishable  materials? 
The  question  can  be  answered  only  in  one  way.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  custom,  which  obtained  in  the 
Greek  lands  in  the  period  best  known  to  us,  had  come 
down  from  remote  antiquity:  that  custom  was  to  make  a 
distinction  between  the  material  on  which  documents  of 
national  interest  and  public  character  were  written  and  that 
on  which  mere  private  documents  of  personal  or  literary 
interest  were  written.  The  former,  such  as  laws,  decrees 
and  other  State  documents,  which  were  intended  to  be  made 
as  widely  known  as  possible,  were  engraved  in  one  or  two 
copies  on  tablets  of  the  most  imperishable  character  and 
preserved  or  exposed  in  some  public  place:*  this  was  the 
ancient  way  of  attaining  the  publicity  which  in  modern 


12  I.  Writing,  Travel,  and  Letters 

time  is  got  by  printing  large  numbers  of  copies  on  ephe- 
meral material.  But  those  public  copies  were  not  the  only 
ones  made;  there  is  no  doubt  that  such  documents  were 
first  of  all  written  on  some  perishable  material,  usually  on 
paper.  In  the  case  of  private  documents,  as  a  rule,  no 
copies  were  made  except  on  perishable  materials. 

Wills  of  private  persons,  indeed,  are  often  found  engraved 
on  marble  or  other  lasting  material ;  these  were  exposed  in 
the  most  public  manner^  over  the  graves  that  lined  the 
great  highways  leading  out  from  the  cities;  but  wills  were 
quasi-public  documents  in  the  classical  period,  and  had  been 
entirely  public  documents  at  an  earlier  time,  according  to 
their  original  character  as  records  of  a  public  act  affecting 
the  community  and  acquiesced  in  by  the  whole  body. 

Similarly,  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that,  in  a  more  an- 
cient period  of  Greek  society,  documents  which  were  only 
of  a  private  character  and  of  personal  or  literary  interest 
were  likely  to  be  recorded  on  more  perishable  substances 
than  graver  State  documents.  This  view,  of  course,  can 
never  be  definitely  and  absolutely  proved,  for  the  only  com- 
plete proof  would  be  the  discovery  of  some  of  those  old 
private  documents,  which  in  the  nature  of  the  case  have 
decayed  and  disappeared.  But  the  known  facts  leave  no 
practical  room  for  doubt. 

Paper  was  in  full  use  in  Egypt,  as  a  finished  and  perfect 
product,  in  the  fourth  millennium  before  Christ.  In  Greece 
it  is  incidentally  referred  to  by  Herodotus  as  in  ordinary 
use  during  the  fifth  century  B.C.  At  what  date  it  began 
to  be  used  there  no  evidence  exists ;  but  there  is  every 
probability  that  it  had  been  imported  from  Egypt  for  a 
long  time;  and  Herodotus  says  that,  before  paper  came 
into  use  on  the  Ionian  coast,  skins  of  animals  were  used  for 


Among  the  Early  Christians  13 

writing.  On  these  and  other  perishable  materials  the, 
letters  and  other  commonplace  documents  of  private  persons 
were  written.  Mr.  Arthur  J.  Evans  has  found  at  Cnossos 
in  Crete  "ink-written  inscriptions  on  vases,"  as  early  as 
1800  or  2000  years  B.C. ;  and  he  has  inferred  from  this 
"the  existence  of  writings  on  papyrus  or  other  perishable 
materials"  in  that  period,  since  ink  would  not  be  made 
merely  for  writing  on  terra-cotta  vases  (though  the  custom 
of  writing  in  ink  on  pottery,  especially  on  ostraka  or  frag- 
ments of  broken  vases,  as  being  cheap,  persisted  throughout 
the  whole  period  of  ancient  civilisation). 

Accordingly,  though  few  private  letters  older  than  the 
imperial  time  have  been  preserved,  it  need  not  and  should 
not  be  supposed  that  there  were  only  a  few  written.  Those 
that  were  written  have  been  lost  because  the  material  on 
which  they  were  written  could  not  last.  If  we  except  the 
correspondence  of  Cicero,  the  great  importance  of  which 
caused  it  to  be  preserved,  hardly  any  ancient  letters  not 
intended  for  publication  by  their  writers  have  come  down 
to  us  except  in  Egypt,  where  the  original  paper  has  in  a 
number  of  cases  survived.  But  the  voluminous  correspon- 
dence of  Cicero  cannot  be  regarded  as  a  unique  fact  of 
Roman  life.  He  and  his  correspondents  wrote  so  frequently 
to  one  another,  because  letter-writing  was  then  common  in 
Roman  society.  Cicero  says  that,  when  he  was  separated 
from  his  friend  Atticus,  they  exchanged  their  thoughts  as 
freely  by  letter  as  they  did  by  conversation  when  they  were 
in  the  same  place.  Such  a  sentiment  was  not  peculiar  to 
one  individual :  it  expressed  a  custom  of  contemporary 
society.  The  truth  is  that,  just  as  in  human  nature  thought 
and  speech  are  linked  together  in  such  a  way  that  (to  use 
the  expression  of  Plato  in  the  Thecetetus)  word  is  spoken 


14     I.   Writing,  etc.,  among   the  Early  Christians 

thought  and  thought  is  unspoken  word,  so  also  human 
beings  seek  by  the  law  of  their  nature  to  express  their  ideas 
permanently  in  writing  as  well  as  momentarily  in  speech; 
and  ignorance  of  writing  in  any  race  points  rather  to  a 
degraded  and  degenerate  than  to  a  truly  primitive  con- 
dition. 


CHAPTER  II. 

TRANSMISSION    OF    LETTERS    IN    THE    FIRST    CENTURY. 

While  writing  springs  from  a  natural  feeling  of  the 
human  mind  and  must  have  originated  at  a  very  remote 
period,  and  while  letters  must  be  almost  as  old  as  travelling, 
the  proper  development  of  epistolary  correspondence  de- 
pends on  improvement  in  the  method  and  the  certainty  of 
transmission.  The  desire  to  write  a  letter  grows  weaker, 
when  it  is  uncertain  whether  the  letter  will  reach  its  destina- 
tion and  whether  others  may  open  and  read  it.  In  the  first 
century  this  condition  was  fulfilled  better  than  ever  before. 
It  was  then  easier  and  safer  to  send  letters  than  it  had  been 
in  earlier  time.  The  civilised  world,  i.e.  the  Roman  world, 
was  traversed  constantly  by  messengers  of  government  or 
by  the  letter-carriers  of  the  great  financial  and  trading 
companies.  Commercial  undertakings  on  such  a  vast  scale 
as  the  Roman  needed  frequent  and  regular  communication 
between  the  central  offices  in  Rome  and  the  agents  in  the 
various  provinces.  There  was  no  general  postal  service ; 
but  each  trading  company  had  its  own  staff  of  letter-carriers. 
Private  persons  who  had  not  letter-carriers  of  their  own 
were  often  able  to  send  letters  along  with  those  business 
communications. 

In  the  early  Roman  Empire  travelling,  though  not  rapid, 
was  performed  with  an  ease  and  certainty  which  were  quite 
remarkable.  The  provision  for  travelling  by  sea  and  by 
land  was  made  on  a  great  scale.     Travellers  were  going 

(15) 


1 6  11.  Transmission  of  Letters 

about  in  great  numbers,  chiefly  during  the  summer  months, 
occasionally  even  during  the  winter  season.  Their  purposes 
were  varied,  not  merely  commerce  or  government  business, 
but  also  education,  curiosity,  search  for  employment  in 
many  departments  of  life.  It  is  true  that  to  judge  from 
some  expressions  used  in  Roman  literature  by  men  of  letters 
and  moralists,  travelling  might  seem  not  to  have  been 
popular.  Those  writers  occasionally  speak  as  if  travelling, 
especially  by  sea,  were  confined  to  traders  who  risked  their 
life  to  make  money,  and  as  if  the  dangers  were  so  great 
that  none  but  the  reckless  and  greedy  would  incur  them; 
and  the  opinion  is  often  expressed,  especially  by  poets,  that 
to  adventure  oneself  on  the  sea  is  an  impious  and  unnatural 
act.  The  well-known  words  of  Horace's  third  Ode  are 
typical : — 

Oak  and  brass  of  triple  fold 
Encompassed  sure  that  heart,  which  first  made  bold 

To  the  raging  sea  to  trust 
A  fragile  bark,  nor  feared  the  Afric  gust : 


Heaven's  high  providence  in  vain 
Has  severed  countries  with  the  estranging  main, 

If  our  vessels  ne'ertheless 
With  reckless  plunge  that  sacred  bar  transgress.' 

But  that  point  of  view  was  traditional  among  the  poets; 
it  had  been  handed  down  from  the  time  when  travelling 
was  much  more  dangerous  and  difficult,  when  ships  were 
small  in  size  and  fewer  in  numbers,  when  seamanship  and 
method  were  inferior,  when  few  roads  had  been  built,  and 
travel  even  by  land  was  uncertain.  Moreover,  seafaring 
and  land  travel  were  hostile  to  the  contentment,  discipline, 
and  quiet  orderly  spirit  which  Greek  poetry  and  philosophy, 
as  a  rule,  loved  to  dwell  on  and  to  recommend :  they  tended 


In  the  First  Century  17 

to  encourage  the  spirit  of  self-confidence,  self-assertiveness, 
daring  and  rebellion  against  authority,  which  was  called 
by  Euripides  "the  sailors'  lawlessness"  (Hectiba,  602).  In 
Roman  literature  the  Greek  models  and  the  Greek  senti- 
ments were  looked  up  to  as  sacred  and  final ;  and  those 
words  of  the  Roman  writers  were  a  proof  of  their  bondage 
to  their  Greek  masters  in  thought. 

When  we  look  deeper,  we  find  that  very  different  views 
were  expressed  by  the  writers  who  came  more  in  contact 
with  the  real  facts  of  the  Imperial  world.  They  are  full  of 
admiration  of  the  Imperial  peace  and  its  fruits :  the  sea  was 
covered  with  ships  interchanging  the  products  of  different 
regions  of  the  earth,  wealth  was  vastly  increased,  comfort 
and  well-being  improved,  hill  and  valley  covered  with  the 
dwellings  of  a  growing  population :  wars  and  pirates  and 
robbers  had  been  put  an  end  to,  travel  was  free  and  safe, 
all  men  could  journey  where  they  wished,  the  most  remote 
and  lonely  countries  were  opened  up  by  roads  and  bridges.^ 
It  is  the  simple  truth  that  travelling,  whether  for  business 
or  for  pleasure,  was  contemplated  and  performed  under  the 
Empire  with  an  indifference,  confidence,  and,  above  all, 
certainty,  which  were  unknown  in  after  centuries  until  the 
introduction  of  steamers  and  the  consequent  increase  in 
ease  and  sureness  of  communication. 

This  ease  and  frequency  of  communication  under  the 
Roman  Empire  was  merely  the  culmination  of  a  process 
that  had  long  been  going  on.  Here,  as  in  many  other 
departments  of  life,  the  Romans  took  up  and  improved 
the  heritage  of  Greece.  Migration  and  intermixture  of 
peoples  had  been  the  natural  law  of  the  Greek  world  from 
time  immemorial ;  and  the  process  was  immensely  stimu- 
lated in  the  fourth  century  B.C.  by  the  conquests  of  Alex- 


1 8  11.  Transmission  of  Letters 

ander  the  Great,  which  opened  up  the  East  and  gave  free 
scope  to  adventure  and  trade.  In  the  following  centuries 
there  was  abundant  opportunity  for  travelling  during  the 
fine  season  of  the  year.  The  powerful  Monarchies  and 
States  of  the  Greek  world  kept  the  sea  safe;  and  during 
the  third  century  b.c,  as  has  been  said  by  Canon  Hicks, 
a  scholar  who  has  studied  that  period  with  special  care, 
"there  must  have  been  daily  communication  between  Cos 
(on  the  west  of  Asia  Minor)  and  Alexandria"  (in  Egypt). ^ 

When  the  weakness  of  the  Senatorial  administration  at 
Rome  allowed  the  pirates  to  increase  and  navigation  to 
become  unsafe  between  79  and  67  B.C.,  the  life  of  the 
civilised  world  was  paralysed ;  and  the  success  of  Pompey 
in  re-opening  the  sea  was  felt  as  the  restoration  of  vitality 
and  civilisation,  for  civilised  life  was  impossible  so  long  as 
the  sea  was  an  untraversable  barrier  between  the  countries 
instead  of  a  pathway  to  unite  them. 

Thus  the  deep-seated  bent  of  human  nature  towards 
letter-writing  had  been  stimulated  and  cultivated  by  many 
centuries  of  increasing  opportunity,  until  it  became  a  settled 
habit  and  in  some  cases,  as  we  see  it  in  Cicero,  almost  a 
passion. 

The  impression  given  by  the  early  Christian  writings  is 
in  perfect  agreement  with  the  language  of  those  writers  who 
spoke  from  actual  contact  with  the  life  of  the  time,  and  did 
not  merely  imitate  older  methods  and  utter  afresh  old  senti- 
ments. Probably  the  feature  in  those  Christian  writings, 
which  causes  most  surprise  at  first  to  the  traveller  familiar 
with  those  countries  in  modern  time,  is  the  easy  confidence 
with  which  extensive  plans  of  travel  were  formed  and 
announced  and  executed  by  the  early  Christians. 

In  Acts  xvi.  I  ff .  a  journey  by  land  and  sea  through  parts 


In  the  First  Century  19 

of  Syria,  Cilicia,  a  corner  of  Cappadocia,  Lycaonia,  Phrygia, 
Mysia,  the  Troad,  Thrace,  Macedonia,  and  Greece  is  de- 
scribed, and  no  suggestion  is  made  that  this  long  journey 
was  anything  unusual,  except  that  the  heightened  tone  of 
the  narrative  in  xvi.  7-9  corresponds  to  the  perplexingly 
rapid  changes  of  scene  and  successive  frustrations  of  St. 
Paul's  intentions.  But  those  who  are  most  intimately  ac- 
cjuainted  with  those  countries  know  best  how  serious  an 
undertaking  it  would  be  at  the  present  time  to  repeat  that 
journey,  how  many  accidents  might  occur  in  it,  and  how 
much  care  and  thought  would  be  advisable  before  one 
entered  on  so  extensive  a  programme. 

Again,  in  xviii.  21  St.  Paul  touched  at  Ephesus  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  the  pilgrim-ship  which  was  conveying 
him  and  many  other  Jews  to  Jerusalem  for  the  Passover. 
When  he  was  asked  to  remain,  he  excused  himself,  but 
promised  to  return  as  he  came  back  from  Jerusalem  by  a 
long  land-journey  through  Syria,  Cilicia,  Lycaonia,  and 
Phrygia.  That  extensive  journey  seems  to  be  regarded  by 
speaker  and  hearers  as  quite  an  ordinary  excursion.  "I 
must  by  all  means  keep  this  feast  that  cometh  in  Jerusalem ; 
but  I  will  again  return  unto  you,  if  God  will."  The  last 
condition  is  added,  not  as  indicating  uncertainty,  but  in 
the  usual  spirit  of  Eastern  religion,  which  forbids  a  resolve 
about  the  future,  however  simple  and  easy,  to  be  declared 
without  the  express  recognition  of  Divine  approval — like 
the  Mohammedan  "inshallah,"  which  never  fails  when  the 
most  ordinary  resolution  about  the  morrow  is  stated. 

In  Romans  xv.  24,  when  writing  from  Corinth,  St.  Paul 
sketches  out  a  comprehensive  plan.  He  is  eager  to  see 
Rome:  first  he  must  go  to  Jerusalem,  but  thereafter  he  is 
bent  on  visiting  Spain,  and  his  course  will  naturally  lead 


20  II.  Transmission  of  Letters 

him  through  Rome,  so  that  he  will,  without  intruding  him- 
self on  them,  have  the  opportunity  of  seeing  the  Romans 
and  affecting  their  Church  on  his  way. 

Throughout  mediaeval  times  nothing  like  this  off-hand 
way  of  sketching  out  extensive  plans  was  natural  or  intelli- 
gible; there  were  then,  indeed,  many  great  travellers,  but 
those  travellers  knew  how  uncertain  their  journeys  were; 
they  were  aware  that  any  plans  would  be  frequently  liable 
to  interruption,  and  that  nothing  could  be  calculated  on  as 
reasonably  certain;  they  entered  on  long  journeys,  but  re- 
garded them  as  open  to  modification  or  even  frustration; 
in  indicating  their  plans  they  knew  that  they  would  be 
regarded  by  others  as  attempting  something  great  and 
strange.  But  St.  Paul's  method  and  language  seem  to  show 
clearly  that  such  journeys  as  he  contemplated  were  looked 
on  as  quite  natural  and  usual  by  those  to  whom  he  spoke 
or  wrote.  He  could  go  off  from  Greece  or  Macedonia  to 
Palestine,  and  reckon  with  practical  certainty  on  being  in 
Jerusalem  in  time  for  a  feast  day  not  far  distant. 

It  is  the  same  with  others:  Aquila  and  Priscilla,  Apollos, 
Silas,  Epaphroditus,  Timothy,  etc.,  move  back  and  forward, 
and  are  now  found  in  one  city,  now  in  another  far  distant. 
Unobservant  of  this  characteristic,  some  writers  have  argued 
that  Romans  xvi.  3  could  not  have  been  addressed  to 
correspondents  who  lived  in  Rome,  because  Aquila  and 
Priscilla,  who  were  in  Ephesus  not  long  before  the  Epistle 
was  written,  are  there  spoken  of  as  living  among  those 
correspondents.  Such  an  argument  could  not  be  used  by 
people  who  had  fully  understood  that  independence  of 
mere  local  trammels  and  connections,  and  quite  a  marvel- 
lous freedom  in  locomotion,  are  a  strongly  marked  feature 
of  the  early  Church.    That  argument  is  one  of  the  smallest 


In  the  First  Century  21 

errors  into  which  this  false  prepossession  has  led  many- 
scholars. 

Communication  by  letter  supplemented  mere  travelling-. 
Such  communication  is  the  greatest  factor  in  the  develop- 
ing of  the  Church;  it  kept  alive  the  interest  of  the 
Christian  congregations  in  one  another,  and  strengthened 
their  mutual  affection  by  giving  frequent  opportunity  of 
expressing  it ;  it  prevented  the  strenuous  activity  of  the 
widely  scattered  local  Churches  from  being  concentrated  on 
purely  local  matters  and  so  degenerating  into  absorption  in 
their  own  immediate  surroundings.  Thus  it  bound  together 
all  the  Provincial  Churches  in  the  one  Universal  Church. 
The  Christian  letters  contained  the  saving  power  of  the 
Church ;  and  in  its  epistolary  correspondence  flowed  its 
life-blood.  The  present  writer  has  elsewhere  attempted  to 
show  that  the  early  Bishops  derived  their  importance  in 
great  degree  from  their  position  as  representatives  of  the 
several  congregations  in  their  relations  with  one  another, 
charged  with  the  duty  of  hospitality  to  travellers  and  the 
maintenance  of  correspondence,  since  through  this  position 
they  became  the  guardians  of  the  unity  of  the  Universal 
Church  and  the  channels  through  which  its  life-blood 
flowed.^ 

The  one  condition  which  was  needed  to  develop  episto- 
lary correspondence  to  a  very  much  greater  extent  in  the 
Roman  Empire  was  a  regular  postal  service.  It  seems  a 
remarkable  fact  that  the  Roman  Imperial  government, 
keenly  desirous  as  it  was  of  encouraging  and  strengthening 
the  common  feeling  and  bond  of  unity  between  different 
parts  of  the  Empire,  never  seems  to  have  thought  of  es- 
tablishing a  general  postal  service  within  its  dominions. 
Augustus  established  an  Imperial  service,  which  was  main- 


2.2     II.  Transmission  of  Letters  in  the  First  Century 

tained  throughout  subsequent  Roman  times;  but  it  was 
strictly  confined  to  Imperial  and  official  business,  and  was 
little  more  than  a  system  of  special  Emperor's  messengers 
on  a  great  scale.  The  consequence  of  this  defect  was  that 
every  great  organisation  or  trading  company  had  to  create 
a  special  postal  service  for  itself ;  and  private  correspondents, 
if  not  wealthy  enough  to  send  their  own  slaves  as  letter- 
carriers,  had  to  trust  to  accidental  opportunities  for  trans- 
mitting their  letters. 

The  failure  of  the  Imperial  government  to  recognise  how 
much  its  own  aims  and  schemes  would  have  been  aided  by 
facilitating  communication  through  the  Empire  was  con- 
nected with  one  of  the  greatest  defects  of  the  Imperial 
administration.  It  never  learned  that  the  strength  and 
permanence  of  a  nation  and  of  its  government  are  depend- 
ent on  the  education  and  character  of  the  people :  it  never 
attempted  to  educate  the  people,  but  only  to  feed  and 
amuse  them.  The  Christian  Church,  which  gradually 
established  itself  as  a  rival  organisation,  did  by  its  own 
efforts  what  the  Imperial  government  aimed  at  doing  for  the 
nation,  and  succeeded  better,  because  it  taught  people  to 
think  for  themselves,  to  govern  themselves,  and  to  main- 
tain their  own  union  by  their  own  exertions.  It  seized 
those  two  great  facts  of  the  Roman  world,  travelling  and 
letter-writing,  and  turned  them  to  its  own  purposes.  The 
former,  on  its  purely  material  side,  it  could  only  accept : 
the  latter  it  developed  to  new  forms  as  an  ideal  and  spiritual 
instrument. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    CHRISTIAN    LETTERS   AND   THEIR   TRANSMISSION. 

In  the  preceding  chapter  we  have  described  the  circum- 
stances amid  which  the  Christian  letter-writing  was  de- 
veloped ;  and  it  was  pointed  out  in  conclusion  that  in  the 
pressure  of  those  circumstances,  or  rather  in  the  energetic 
use  of  the  opportunities  which  the  circumstances  of  the 
Roman  Empire  offered,  there  came  into  existence  a  kind 
of  letter,  hitherto  unknown  in  the  world.  The  Christians 
developed  the  older  class  of  letter  into  new  forms,  ap- 
plied it  to  new  purposes,  and  placed  it  on  a  much  higher 
plane  than  it  had  ever  before  stood  upon.  In  their  hands 
communication  by  letter  became  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant, if  not  the  most  important,  of  the  agencies  for  con- 
solidating and  maintaining  the  sense  of  unity  among  the 
scattered  members  of  the  one  universal  Church.  By  means 
of  letters  the  congregations  expressed  their  mutual  affection 
and  sympathy  and  sense  of  brotherhood,  asked  counsel  of 
one  another,  gave  advice  with  loving  freedom  and  plain 
speaking  to  one  another,  imparted  mutual  comfort  and 
encouragement,  and  generally  expressed  their  sense  of  their 
common  life.    Thus  arose  a  new  category  of  epistles. 

Dr.  Deissmann  in  Bible  Studies,  p.  i  ff.,  following  older 
scholars,  has  rightly  and  clearly  distinguished  two  previously 
existing  categories,  the  true  letter — written  by  friend  to 
friend  or  to  friends,  springing  from  the  momentary  occasion, 
intended  only  for  the  eye  of  the  person  or  persons  to  whom 

(23) 


24  in.  The  Christian  Letters 

it  is  addressed — and  the  literary  epistle — written  with  an 
eye  to  the  public,  and  studied  with  literary  art.  The  literary 
epistle  is  obviously  later  in  origin  than  the  true  letter.  It 
implies  the  previous  existence  of  the  true  letter  as  a  well- 
recognised  type  of  composition,  and  the  deliberate  choice  of 
this  type  for  imitation.  Soon  after  the  death  of  Aristotle 
in  322  B.C.  a  fictitious  collection  of  letters  purporting  to 
have  been  written  by  him  was  published.  Such  forged 
letters  are  composed  for  a  literary  purpose  with  an  eye  to 
the  opinion  of  the  world.  The  forger  deliberately  writes 
them  after  a  certain  type  and  with  certain  characteristics, 
which  may  cause  them  to  be  taken  for  something  which 
they  are  not  really.  A  fabrication  like  this  proves  at  least 
that  the  letter  was  already  an  established  form  of  composi- 
tion ;  and  the  forger  believed  that  he  could  calculate  on 
rousing  public  interest  by  falsely  assuming  this  guise. 

But  it  is  impossible  to  follow  Dr.  Deissmann,  it  seems  to 
me,  when  he  goes  on  to  reduce  all  the  letters  of  the  New 
Testament  to  one  or  other  of  those  categories.^  He  shows,  it 
is  true,  some  consciousness  that  the  two  older  categories  are 
insufficient,  but  the  fact  is  that  in  the  new  conditions  a  new 
category  had  been  developed — the  general  letter  addressed 
to  a  whole  congregation  or  to  the  entire  Church  of  Christ. 

These  are  true  letters,  in  the  sense  that  they  spring  from 
the  heart  of  the  writer  and  speak  direct  to  the  heart  of  the 
readers ;  that  they  were  often  written  in  answer  to  a  question, 
or  called  forth  by  some  special  crisis  in  the  history  of  the 
persons  addressed,  so  that  they  rise  out  of  the  actual  situation 
in  which  the  writer  conceives  the  readers  to  be  placed ;  that 
they  express  the  writer's  keen  and  living  sympathy  with  and 
participation  in  the  fortunes  of  the  whole  class  addressed ; 
that  they  are  not  affected  by  any  thought  of  a  wider  public 


And    their  Transmission  25 

than  the  persons  whom  he  directly  addresses ;  in  short,  he 
empties  out  his  heart  in  them.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
letters  of  this  class  express  general  principles  of  life  and 
conduct,  religion  and  ethics,  applicable  to  a  wider  range  of 
circumstances  than  those  which  have  called  forth  the  special 
letter;  and  they  appeal  as  emphatically  and  intimately  to 
all  Christians  in  all  time  as  they  did  to  those  addressed  in 
the  first  instance. 

It  was  not  long  before  this  wider  appeal  was  perceived. 
It  is  evident  that  when  St.  Paul  bade  the  Colossians  send 
his  letter  to  be  read  in  the  Laodicean  Church,  and  read 
themselves  the  Laodicean  letter,  he  saw  that  each  was  ap- 
plicable to  a  wider  circle  than  it  directly  addressed.  But 
it  is  equally  evident  that  the  Colossian  letter  was  composed 
not  with  an  eye  to  that  wider  circle,  but  directly  to  suit 
the  critical  situation  in  Colossse.  The  wider  application 
arises  out  of  the  essential  similarity  of  human  nature  in 
both  congregations  and  in  all  mankind.  The  crisis  that 
has  occurred  in  one  congregation  is  likely  at  some  period 
to  occur  in  other  similar  bodies ;  and  the  letter  which 
speaks  direct  to  the  heart  of  one  man  or  one  body  of  men 
will  speak  direct  to  the  heart  of  all  men  in  virtue  of  their 
common  human  nature.  Here  lies  the  essential  character 
of  this  new  category  of  letters.  In  the  individual  case 
they  discover  the  universal  principle,  and  state  it  in  such 
a  way  as  to  reach  the  heart  of  every  man  similarly  situ- 
ated; and  yet  they  state  this,  not  in  the  way  of  formal 
exposition,  but  in  the  way  of  direct  personal  converse, 
written  in  place  of  spoken. 

Some  of  those  Christian  letters  are  more  diverse  from  the 
true  letter  than  others ;  and  Dr.  Deissmann  tries  to  force 
them  into  his  too  narrow  classification  by  calling  some  of 


26  III.  The  Christian  Letters 

them  true  letters  and  others  Uterary  epistles.  But  none  of 
the  letters  in  the  New  Testament  can  be  restricted  within 
the  narrow  range  of  his  definition  of  the  true  letter:  even 
the  letter  to  Philemon,  intimate  and  personal  as  it  is,  rebels 
in  some  parts  against  this  strictness,  and  rises  into  a  far 
higher  and  broader  region  of  thought :  it  is  addressed  not 
only  to  Philemon  and  Apphia  and  Archippus,  but  also  "to 
the  Church  in  thy  house." 

Such  letters  show  a  certain  analogy  to  the  Imperial 
rescripts.  The  rescript  was  strictly  a  mere  reply  to  a 
request  for  guidance  in  some  special  case,  addressed  by 
an  official  to  the  Emperor;  yet  it  came  to  be  regarded  as 
one  of  the  chief  means  of  improving  and  developing  Roman 
public  law.  A  rescript  arose  out  of  special  circumstances 
and  stated  the  Emperor's  opinion  on  them  in  much  the 
same  way  as  if  the  official  had  consulted  him  face  to  face; 
the  rescript  was  written  for  the  eye  of  one  official,  without 
any  thought  of  others ;  but  it  set  forth  the  general  principle 
of  policy  which  applied  to  the  special  case.  The  rescripts 
show  how  inadequate  Dr.  Deissmann's  classification  is.  It 
would  be  a  singularly  incomplete  account  of  them  to  class 
them  either  as  true  letters  or  as  literary  epistles.  They 
have  many  of  the  characteristics  of  the  true  letter;  in  them 
the  whole  mind  and  spirit  of  the  Imperial  writer  was  ex- 
pressed for  the  benefit  of  one  single  reader;  but  they  lack 
entirely  the  spontaneity  and  freshness  of  the  true  letter. 
As  expressing  general  truths  and  universal  principles,  they 
must  have  been  the  result  of  long  experience  and  careful 
thought,  though  the  final  expression  was  often  hasty  and 
roused  by  some  special  occasion.  This  more  studied  char- 
acter differentiates  them  from  the  mere  unstudied  expression 
of  personal  affection  and  interest. 


And  their  Transmission  27 

Similarly,  those  general  letters  of  the  Christians  express 
and  embody  the  growth  in  the  law  of  the  Church  and  in 
its  common  life  and  constitution.  They  originated  in  the 
circumstances  of  the  Church.  The  letter  of  the  Council 
at  Jerusalem  (Acts  xv.  22,  ff.)  arose  out  of  a  special  occa- 
sion, and  was  the  reply  to  a  question  addressed  from  Syria 
to  the  central  Church  and  its  leaders ;  the  reply  was 
addressed  to  the  Churches  of  the  province  of  Syria  and 
Cilicia,  and  specially  the  Church  of  the  capital  of  that 
province ;  but  it  was  forthwith  treated  as  applicable  equally 
to  other  Christians,  and  was  communicated  as  authorita- 
tive by  Paul  and  Silas  to  the  Churches  of  Galatia  (Acts 
xvi.  4). 

The  peculiar  relation  of  fatherhood  and  authority  in 
which  Paul  stood  to  his  own  Churches  developed  still 
further  this  category  of  letters.  Mr.  V.  Bartlet  has  some 
good  remarks  on  it  in  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible, 
i.,  p.  730,  from  which  we  may  be  allowed  to  quote  two 
sentences.  "Of  a  temper  too  ardent  for  the  more  studied 
forms  of  writing,  St.  Paul  could  yet  by  letter,  and  so  on 
the  spur  of  occasion,  concentrate  all  his  wealth  of  thought, 
feeling  and  maturing  experience  upon  some  particular  re- 
ligious situation,  and  sweep  away  the  difficulty  or  danger. 
.  .  .  The  true  cause  of"  all  his  letters  "lay  deep  in  the 
same  spirit  as  breathes  in  First  Thessalonians,  the  essen- 
tially 'pastoral'  instinct". 

A  still  further  development  towards  general  philosophico- 
legal  statement  of  religious  dogma  is  apparent  on  the  one 
hand  in  Romans,  addressed  to  a  Church  which  he  had  not 
founded,  and  on  the  other  hand  in  the  Pastoral  Epistles. 
The  latter  have  a  double  character,  being  addressed  by 
Paul   to   friends  and   pupils  of  his  own,   partly   in   their 


28  III.  The  Christian  Letters 

capacity  of  personal  friends — such  portions  of  the  letters 
being  of  the  most  intimate,  incidental,  and  unstudied 
character — but  far  more  in  their  official  capacity  as  heads 
and  overseers  of  a  group  of  Churches — such  parts  of  the 
letters  being  really  intended  more  for  the  guidance  of  the 
congregations  than  of  the  nominal  addressees,  and  being, 
undoubtedly,  to  a  considerable  extent  merely  confirmatory 
of  the  teaching  already  given  to  the  congregations  by 
Timothy  and  Titus.  The  double  character  of  these  Epistles 
is  a  strong  proof  of  their  authenticity.  Such  a  mixture  of 
character  could  only  spring  from  the  intimate  friend  and 
leader,  whose  interest  in  the  work  which  his  two  subordin- 
ates were  doing  was  at  times  lost  in  the  personal  relation. 

The  Catholic  Epistles  represent  a  further  stage  of  this 
development.  First  Peter  is  addressed  to  a  very  wide  yet 
carefully  defined  body  of  Churches  in  view  of  a  serious  trial 
to  which  they  are  about  to  be  exposed.  Second  Peter, 
James,  and  First  John  are  quite  indefinite  in  their  address 
to  all  Christians.  But  all  of  them  are  separated  by  a  broad 
and  deep  division  from  the  literary  epistle  written  for 
the  public  eye.  They  are  informed  and  inspired  with  the 
intense  personal  affection  which  the  writers  felt  for  every 
individual  of  the  thousands  whom  they  addressed.  They 
are  entirely  devoid  of  the  artificiality  which  is  inseparable 
from  the  literary  epistle ;  they  come  straight  from  the  heart 
and  speak  straight  to  the  heart;  whereas  the  literary 
epistle  is  always  and  necessarily  written  with  a  view  to 
its  effect  on  the  public,  and  the  style  is  affected  and  to  a 
certain  degree  forced  and  even  unnatural.  It  was  left  for 
the  Christian  letter  to  prove  that  the  heart  of  man  is  wide 
enough  and  deep  enough  to  entertain  the  same  love  for 
thousands  as  for  one.    The  Catholic  Epistles  are  therefore 


And  their  Transmission  29 

quite  as  far  removed  from  the  class  of  "literary  epistles" 
as  the  typical  letters  of  Paul  are  from  the  class  of  "true 
letters,"  as  those  classes  have  been  defined;  and  the  re- 
semblance in  essentials  between  the  Catholic  and  the 
typical  Pauline  Epistles  is  sufficient  to  overpower  the 
points  of  difference,  and  to  justify  us  in  regarding  them 
as  forming  a  class  by  themselves. 

This  remarkable  development,  in  which  law,  statesman- 
ship, ethics,  and  religion  meet  in  and  transform  the  simple 
letter,  was  the  work  of  St.  Paul  more  tlian  of  any  other. 
But  it  was  not  due  to  him  alone,  nor  initiated  by  him.  It 
began  before  him  and  continued  after  him.  It  sprang  from 
the  nature  of  the  Church  and  the  circumstances  of  the  time. 
The  Church  was  Imperial,  the  visible  Kingdom  of  God.  Its 
leaders  felt  that  their  letters  expressed  the  will  of  God ; 
and  they  issued  their  truly  Imperial  rescripts.  "It  seemed 
good  to  the  Holy  Spirit  and  to  us"  is  the  bold  and  regal 
exordium  of  the  first  Christian  letter. 

Christian  letters  in  the  next  two  or  three  centuries  were 
often  inspired  by  something  of  the  same  spirit.  Congrega- 
tion spoke  boldly  and  authoritatively  to  congregation,  as 
each  was  moved  by  the  Spirit  to  write:  the  letter  partook 
of  the  nature  of  an  Imperial  rescript,  yet  it  was  merely  the 
expression  of  the  intense  interest  taken  by  equal  in  equal, 
and  brother  in  brother.  The  whole  series  of  such  letters  is 
indicative  of  the  strong  interest  of  all  individuals  in  the 
government  of  the  entire  body ;  and  they  form  one  of  the 
loftiest  and  noblest  embodiments  of  a  high  tone  of  feeling 
common  to  a  very  large  number  of  ordinary,  commonplace, 
undistinguished  human  beings. 

Such  a  development  of  the  letter  was  possible  in  that 
widely   scattered  body   of   the    Church   only   through   the 


30  in.  The  Christian  Letters 

greatly  increased  facilities  for  travel  and  intercourse.  The 
Church  showed  its  marvellous  intuition  and  governing  capa- 
city by  seizing  this  opportunity.  In  this,  as  in  many  other 
ways,  it  was  the  creature  of  its  time,  suiting  itself  to  the 
needs  of  the  time,  which  was  ripe  for  it,  and  using  the 
conditions  and  opportunities  of  the  time  with  true  creative 
statesmanship.2 

As  has  been  said,  correspondence  is  impossible  without 
some  safe  means  of  conveyance.  A  confidential  letter,  the 
real  outpouring  of  one's  feelings,  is  impossible  unless  the 
writer  feels  reasonably  sure  that  the  letter  will  reach  the 
proper  hands,  and  still  more  that  it  will  not  fall  into 
the  wrong  hands.  Further,  it  has  been  pointed  out  that 
there  was  no  public  post,  and  that  any  individual  or  any 
trading  company  which  maintained  a  large  correspondence 
was  forced  to  maintain  an  adequate  number  of  private 
letter-carriers.  The  great  financial  associations  of  publicani 
in  the  last  century  b.c.  had  bodies  of  slave  messengers, 
called  tahellarii,  to  carry  their  letters  between  the  central 
administration  in  Rome  and  the  agents  scattered  over  every 
province  where  they  conducted  business.  Wealthy  private 
persons  employed  some  of  their  own  slaves  as  tabellarii. 
But  if  such  messengers  were  to  be  useful,  they  must  be 
experienced,  and  they  must  be  familiar  with  roads  and 
methods  of  travel :  in  short,  any  great  company  which 
maintained  a  large  correspondence  must  necessarily  organ- 
ise a  postal  service  of  its  own.  The  best  routes  and  halts 
were  marked  out,  the  tahellarii  travelled  along  fixed  roads, 
and  the  administration  could  say  approximately  where  any 
messenger  was  likely  to  be  at  any  moment,  when  a  letter 
would  arrive  and  the  orders  which  it  contained  be  put  in 
execution,  when  each  messenger  would  return  and  be  avail- 


And  their  Transmission  31 

able  for  a  new  mission.  All  this  lies  at  the  basis  of  good 
organisation  and  successful  conduct  of  business.  As  to  the 
details  we  know  nothing;  no  account  of  such  things  has 
been  preserved.  But  the  existence  of  such  a  system  must 
be  presupposed  as  a  condition,  before  great  business  opera- 
tions like  the  Roman  could  be  carried  on.  A  large  corre- 
spondence  implies   a   special   postal   system. 

Now  we  must  apply  this  to  the  Christian  letters.  Many 
such  letters  were  sent :  those  which  have  been  preserved 
must  be  immensely  multiplied  to  give  any  idea  of  the 
number  really  despatched.  The  importance  of  this  corre- 
spondence for  the  welfare  and  growth  of  the  Church  was, 
as  has  been  shown,  very  great.  Some  provision  for  the  safe 
transmission  of  that  large  body  of  letters,  official  and  private, 
was  obviously  necessary.  Here  is  a  great  subject,  as  to 
which  no  information  has  been  preserved. 

It  must  be  supposed  (as  was  stated  above,  that  the 
bishops  had  the  control  of  this  department  of  Church  work. 
In  the  first  place  the  bishop  wrote  in  the  name  of  the 
congregation  of  which  he  was  an  official:  this  is  known 
from  the  case  of  the  Roman  Clement,  whose  letter  to  the 
Corinthians  is  expressed  in  the  name  of  the  Roman  Church. 
The  reference  to  him  in  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  Vision, 
ii.,  4,  3,  as  entrusted  with  the  duty  of  communicating  with 
other  Churches,  confirms  the  obvious  inference  from  his 
letter,  and  the  form  of  the  reference  shows  that  the  case 
was  not  an  exceptional,  but  a  regular  and  typical  one. 
This  one  case,  therefore,  proves  sufficiently  what  was  the 
practice  in  the  Church.^ 

In  the  second  place  the  bishop  was  charged  with  the  duty 
of  hospitality,  i.e.  of  receiving  and  providing  for  the  com- 


32  III.  The  Christian  Letters 

fort  of  the  envoys  and  messengers  from  other  Churches: 
this  is  distinctly  stated  in  i  Timothy  iii.  i  ff.  and  Titus 
i.  5  if.  To  understand  what  is  impHed  in  this  duty,  it  is 
necessary  to  conceive  clearly  the  situation.  As  has  been 
already  pointed  out,  the  Christian  letter-writers  had  to  find 
their  own  messengers.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that,  as  an 
almost  invariable  rule,  those  messengers  were  Christians. 
Especially,  all  official  letters  from  one  congregation  to 
another  must  be  assumed  to  have  been  borne  by  Christian 
envoys.  Epaphroditus,  Tychicus,  Silas  and  others,  who 
occur  as  bearers  of  letters  in  the  New  Testament,  must  be 
taken  as  examples  of  a  large  class.  St.  Paul  himself  carried 
and  delivered  the  first  known  Christian  letter.  That  class  of 
travelling  Christians  could  not  be  sufifered  to  lodge  in  pagan 
inns,  which  were  commonly  places  of  the  worst  character 
in  respect  of  morality  and  comfort  and  cleanliness.*  They 
were  entertained  by  their  Christian  brethren ;  that  was  a  duty 
incumbent  on  the  congregation ;  and  the  bishops  had  to 
superintend  and  be  responsible  for  the  proper  discharge  of 
this  duty.  It  must  therefore  be  understood  that  such  en- 
voys would  address  themselves  first  to  the  bishop,  when 
they  came  to  any  city  where  there  was  an  organised  body 
of  Christians  resident,  and  that  all  Christian  travellers  would 
in  like  manner  look  to  the  bishop  for  guidance  to  suitable 
quarters.  Considering  that  the  number  of  Christian  travellers 
must  have  been  large,  it  is  entirely  impossible  to  interpret 
the  duty  of  hospitality,  with  which  the  bishop  was  charged, 
as  implying  that  he  ought  to  entertain  them  in  his  own  house. 
In  the  third  place,  it  seems  to  follow  as  a  necessary 
corollary  from  the  two  preceding  duties,  that  the  letters 
addressed  to  any  congregation  were  received  by  the  bishop 
in  its  name  and  as  its  representative. 


And    their  Transmission  33 

From  the  fact  that  the  letter-carriers  were  usually 
Christian,  we  must  infer  that  they  were  not  likely  as  a  rule 
to  be,  like  the  tabellarii  of  the  great  Roman  companies, 
slaves  trained  to  the  duty  and  doing  nothing  else.  In 
many  cases,  certainly,  the  letters  were  carried  by  persons 
who  had  other  reasons  for  travelling.  But  in  a  great  pro- 
vince like  Asia,  it  was  necessary  to  have  more  regular 
messengers  within  the  province,  and  not  to  depend  entirely 
on  accidental  opportunities.  Undoubtedly,  messengers  had 
often  to  be  sent  with  letters  round  the  congregations  of  the 
province.  In  the  earlier  stages  of  Church  development, 
probably,  those  messengers  were  volunteers,  discharging 
a  duty  which  among  the  pagans  was  almost  entirely  per- 
formed by  slaves:  just  as  Luke  and  Aristarchus,  when 
they  travelled  with  St.  Paul  to  Rome,  must  have  volun- 
tarily passed  as  his  servants,  i.e.  as  slaves,  in  order  to  be 
admitted  to  the  convoy.  In  such  cases,  it  is  apparent  how 
much  this  sense  of  duty  ennobled  labour  and  raised  the 
social  standing  of  the  labourer,  who  was  now  a  volunteer, 
making  himself  like  a  slave  in  the  service  of  the  Church. 
In  this  there  is  already  involved  the  germ  of  a  general 
emancipation  of  slaves  and  the  substitution  of  free  for 
slave  labour. 

As  time  passed,  and  the  work  grew  heavier,  the  organisa- 
tion must  have  become  more  complex,  and  professional 
carriers  of  letters  were  probably  required.  But  as  to  the 
details  we  know  nothing,  though  the  general  outlines  of  the 
system  were  dictated  by  the  circumstances  of  the  period, 
and  can  be  restored  accordingly.  Thus,  as  soon  as  we 
begin  to  work  out  the  idea  of  the  preparations  and  equip- 
ment required  in  practice  for  this  great  system,  we  find 
ourselves  obliged  to  admit  the  existence  of  a  large  or- 


34      III.  Christian  Letters  and  their  Transmission 

ganisation.  The  Church  stands  before  those  who  rightly 
conceive  its  practical  character,  as  a  real  antagonist  in  the 
fullest  sense  to  the  Imperial  government,  creating  and 
managing  its  own  rival  administration.  We  thus  under- 
stand better  the  hatred  which  the  Imperial  government 
could  not  but  feel  for  it,  a  hatred  which  is  altogether 
misapprehended  by  those  who  regard  it  as  springing  from 
religious  ground.  We  understand  too  how  Constantine  at 
last  recognised  in  the  Church  the  one  bond  which  could 
hold  together  the  disintegrating  Empire.  Whether  or  not  he 
was  a  Christian,  he  at  least  possessed  a  statesman's  insight. 
And  his  statesmanlike  insight  in  estimating  the  practical 
strength  of  rival  religions  stands  out  as  all  the  more 
wonderful,  if  he  were  not  a  Christian  at  heart;  for  (though 
many  years  of  his  youth  and  earlier  manhood  had  been 
spent  in  irksome  detention  in  the  East,  where  Christianity 
was  the  popular  and  widely  accepted  religion),  yet  his 
choice  was  made  in  the  West,  the  country  of  his  birth  and 
of  his  hopes,  where  Mithraism  was  the  popular  and  most 
influential  religion :  it  was  made  amid  the  soldiery,  which 
was  almost  entirely  devoted  to  the  religion  of  Mithras.^ 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   LETTERS   TO    THE  SEVEN    CHURCHES. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  parts  of  that  strange  and 
difficult  book,  the  Revelation  of  St.  John,  is  the  passage  ii. 
I  to  iii.  22,  containing  the  Seven  Letters.  The  Apocalypse 
as  a  whole  belongs  to  a  large  and  well-known  class  of  later 
Jewish  literature,  and  has  many  features  in  common  with 
previous  Apocalypses  of  Jewish  origin.  St.  John  was  using 
an  established  literary  form,  which  he  adapted  in  a  cer- 
tain degree  to  his  purposes,  but  which  seriously  fettered 
and  impeded  him  by  its  fanciful  and  unreal  character.  As 
a  general  rule  he  obeys  the  recognised  laws  of  apocalyptic 
composition,  and  imitates  the  current  forms  so  closely  that 
his  Apocalypse  has  been  wrongly  taken  by  some  scholars, 
chiefly  German,  as  a  work  of  originally  pure  and  unmixed 
Jewish  character,  which  was  modified  subsequently  to  a 
Christian  type. 

In  this  work,  Jewish  in  origin  and  general  plan,  and  to  a 
great  extent  Jewish  in  range  of  topics,  there  is  inserted  this 
episode  of  the  Seven  Letters,  which  appears  to  be  almost 
entirely  non-Jewish  in  character  and  certainly  non-Jewish 
in  origin  and  model.  There  must  have  been  therefore 
some  reason  which  seemed  to  the  author  to  demand  im- 
peratively the  insertion  of  such  an  episode  in  a  work  of 
diverse  character.  The  reason  was  that  the  form  of  letters 
had  already  established  itself  as  the  most  characteristic 
expression  of  the  Christian  mind,  and  as  almost  obligatory 

(35) 


36  IV.  The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches 

on  a  Christian  writer.  Though  many  other  forms  have 
been  tried  in  Christian  hterature,  e.g.  the  dialogue,  the 
formal  treatise,  etc.,  yet  the  fact  remains  that — apart  from 
the  fundamental  four  Gospels — the  highest  and  most  stimu- 
lating and  creative  products  of  Christian  thought  have  been 
expressed  in  the  epistolary  form.  This  was  already  vaguely 
present  in  the  mind  of  St.  John  while  he  was  composing 
the  Apocalypse.  Under  this  compelling  influence  he  aban- 
dons the  apocalyptic  form  for  a  brief  interval,  and  ex- 
presses his  thought  in  the  form  of  letters.  In  them  he 
makes  some  attempt  to  keep  up  the  symbolism  which  was 
prescribed  by  the  traditional  principles  of  apocalyptic  com- 
position ;  but  such  imagery  is  too  awkward  and  cumbrous 
for  the  epistolary  form,  and  has  exerted  little  influence  on 
the  Seven  Letters.  The  traditional  apocalyptic  form  breaks 
in  his  hands,  and  he  throws  away  the  shattered  fragments. 

In  the  subsequent  development  of  St.  John's  thought 
it  is  plain  that  he  had  recognised  the  inadequacy  and 
insufficiency  of  the  fashionable  Jewish  literary  forms.  It 
seems  highly  probable  that  the  perception  of  that  fact 
came  to  him  during  the  composition  of  the  Revelation,  and 
that  the  Seven  Letters,  though  placed  near  the  beginning 
and  fitted  carefully  into  that  position,  were  the  last  part  of 
the  work  to  be  conceived. 

It  must  also  be  noticed  that  the  book  of  the  Revelation, 
as  a  whole,  except  the  first  three  verses,  is  cast  in  the  form 
of  a  letter.  After  the  brief  introduction,  the  fourth  verse 
is  expressed  in  the  regular  epistolary  form : — 

John  to  the  Seven  Asian  Churches: 
Grace  to  you  and  peace,  from  him  zvhich  is  and  which  was 
and  which  is  to  come;  and  from  the  Seven  Spirits^  etc. 


The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches  2>7 


Such  a  beginning  is  out  of  keeping  with  the  ordinary- 
apocalyptic  form;  but  the  pastoral  instinct  was  strong  in 
the  writer,  and  he  could  never  lose  the  sense  of  responsi- 
bility for  the  Churches  that  were  under  his  charge.  Just 
as  the  Roman  Consul  read  in  the  sky  the  signs  of  the  will 
of  heaven  on  behalf  of  the  State,  so  St.  John  saw  in  the 
heavens  the  vision  of  trial  and  triumph  on  behalf  of  the 
Churches  entrusted  to  his  care.  All  that  he  saw  and  heard 
was  for  them  rather  than  for  himself ;  and  this  is  distinctly 
intimated  to  him,  i.  ii,  What  thou  seest,  write  in  a  hook,  and 
send  to  the  Seven  Churches. 

The  expression  just  quoted  from  i.  ij,zvrite  in  a  book, and 
send,  obviously  refers  to  the  vision  as  a  whole.  It  is  not  an 
introduction  to  the  Seven  Letters :  it  is  the  order  to  write 
out  and  send  the  entire  Apocalypse.  This  the  writer  does, 
and  sends  it  with  the  covering  letter,  which  begins  in  i.  4. 
Hence  i.  11  explains  the  origin  of  i.  4.  The  idea  of  the 
letter  as  the  inevitable  Christian  form  was  firmly  in  the 
writer's  mind.  He  must  write  an  Apocalypse  with  the 
record  of  his  vision ;  but  he  must  enclose  it  in  a  letter  to 
the  Churches. 

The  Apocalypse  would  be  quite  complete  without  the 
Seven  Letters:  chapter  iv.  follows  chapter  i.  naturally. 
The  Seven  Letters  spring  from  the  sense  of  reality,  the 
living  vigorous  instinct,  from  which  the  Christian  spirit  can 
never  free  itself.  An  Apocalypse  could  not  content  St, 
John:  it  did  not  bring  him  in  close  enough  relation  to  his 
Churches.  And  so,  as  a  second  thought,  he  addressed  the 
Seven  representative  Churches  one  by  one;  and,  as  the 
letters  could  not  be  placed  last,  he  placed  them  near  the 
beginning;  but  the  one  link  of  connection  between  them 
and  the  Apocalypse  lies  in  the  words  with  which  each  is 


38         IV.  The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches 

finished:  he  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  spirit 
saith  to  the  Churches,  i.e.  not  merely  the  words  of  the  Letter, 
but  the  Apocalypse  which  follows. 

It  is  also  not  improbable  that  St.  John  had  received  a 
greater  share  of  the  regular  Jewish  education  than  most  of 
his  fellow-Apostles,  and  that,  through  his  higher  education, 
the  accepted  Jewish  forms  of  composition  had  a  greater 
hold  on  his  mind,  and  were  more  difficult  for  him  to  throw 
off,  than  for  Peter,  who  had  never  been  so  deeply  imbued 
with  them.  However  that  may  be,  it  is  at  least  evident  in 
his  later  career  that  a  new  stage  began  for  him  at  this  point, 
that  he  discarded  Hebrew  literary  models  and  adopted 
more  distinctly  Greek  forms,  and  that  his  literary  style  and 
expression  markedly  improved  at  the  same  time.  Proper 
consideration  of  these  facts  must  surely  lead  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  no  very  long  interval  of  time  must  necessarily  be 
supposed  to  have  elapsed  between  the  composition  of  the 
Revelation  and  of  the  Gospel.  The  change  in  style  is  in- 
deed very  marked ;  but  it  is  quite  in  accordance  with  the 
observed  facts  of  literary  growth  in  other  men  that  a  critical 
and  epoch-making  step  in  mental  development,  when  one 
frees  oneself  from  the  dominion  of  a  too  narrow  early  edu- 
cation, and  strikes  out  in  a  path  of  originality,  may  be  ac- 
companied by  a  very  marked  improvement  in  linguistic 
expression  and  style. 

The  Seven  Letters  are  farther  removed  from  the  type 
of  the  "true  letter"  than  any  other  compositions  in  the 
New  Testament.  In  their  conception  they  are  strictly 
"literary  epistles,"  deliberate  and  intentional  imitations  of  a 
literary  form  that  was  already  firmly  established  in  Christian 
usage.  They  were  not  intended  to  be  sent  directly  to  the 
Churches  to  which  they  were  addressed.    They  had  never 


The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches  39 

any  separate  existence  apart  from  one  another  and  from 
the  book  of  which  they  are  a  part.  They  are  written  on 
a  uniform  plan,  which  is  absolutely  opposed  to  the  spon- 
taneity and  directness  of  the  true  letter.  At  the  stage  in 
his  development,  which  we  have  supposed  the  author  to  be 
traversing,  he  passed  from  the  domination  of  one  literary 
form,  the  Jewish  apocalyptic,  to  the  domination  of  another 
literary  form,  the  Christian  epistolary.  He  had  not  yet 
attained  complete  literary  freedom :  he  had  not  yet  come  to 
his  heritage,  emancipated  himself  from  the  influence  of 
models,  and  launched  forth  on  the  ocean  of  his  own  wonder- 
ful genius.  But  he  was  just  on  the  point  of  doing  so.  One 
step  more,  and  he  was  his  own  master. 

How  near  that  step  was  is  obvious,  when  we  look  more 
closely  into  the  character  of  the  Seven  Letters.  It  is  only 
by  very  close  study,  as  in  the  chapters  below  devoted  to  the 
individual  letters,  that  the  reader  can  duly  appreciate  the 
special  character  of  each.  To  sum  up  and  anticipate  the 
results  of  that  closer  study,  it  may  here  be  said  that  the 
author  of  the  Seven  Letters,  while  composing  them  all  on 
the  same  general  lines,  as  mere  parts  of  an  episode  in  a  great 
work  of  literature,  imparts  to  them  many  touches,  specially 
suitable  to  the  individual  Churches,  and  showing  his  intimate 
knowledge  of  them  all.  In  each  case,  as  he  wrote  the 
letter,  the  Church  to  which  it  was  addressed  stood  before 
his  imagination  in  its  reality  and  its  life ;  he  was  absorbed 
with  the  thought  of  it  alone,  and  he  almost  entirely  forgot 
that  he  was  composing  a  piece  of  literature,  and  apostro- 
phised it  directly,  with  the  same  overmastering  earnestness 
and  sense  of  responsibility  that  breathe  through  St.  Paul's 
letters. 

As  will  be  shown  fully  in  chapter  xiv.,  the  Seven  Churches 


40  IV.  The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches 


stood  as  representative  of  seven  groups  of  congregations; 
but  the  Seven  Letters  are  addressed  to  them  as  individual 
Churches,  and  not  to  the  groups  for  which  they  stand. 
The  letters  were  written  by  one  who  was  familiar  with  the 
situation,  the  character,  the  past  history,  the  possibilities  of 
future  development,  of  those  Seven  Cities.  The  Church  of 
Sardis,  for  example,  is  addressed  as  the  Church  of  that 
actual,  single  city:  the  facts  and  characteristics  mentioned 
are  proper  to  it  alone,  and  not  common  to  the  other  Churches 
of  the  Hermus  Valley.  Those  others  were  not  much  in  the 
writer's  mind:  he  was  absorbed  with  the  thought  of  that 
one  city:  he  saw  only  death  before  it.  But  the  other  cities 
which  were  connected  with  it  may  be  warned  by  its  fate; 
and  he  that  overcometh  shall  be  spared  and  honoured. 
Similarly,  St.  Paul's  letter  to  Colossae  was  written  specially 
for  it  alone,  and  with  no  reference  to  Laodicea ;  yet  it  was 
ordered  to  be  communicated  to  Laodicea,  and  read  publicly 
there  also. 

This  singleness  of  vision  is  not  equally  marked  on  the 
surface  of  every  letter.  In  the  message  to  Laodicea,  the 
thought  of  the  other  cities  of  the  group  is  perhaps  ap- 
parent; and  possibly  the  obscurity  of  the  Thyatiran  Letter 
may  be  due  in  some  degree  to  the  outlook  upon  the  other 
cities  of  its  group,  though  a  quite  sufficient  and  more  prob- 
able reason  is  our  almost  complete  ignorance  of  the  special 
character  of  that  city. 

To  this  singleness  of  vision,  the  clearness  with  which  the 
writer  sees  each  single  city,  and  the  directness  with  which 
he  addresses  himself  to  each,  is  due  the  remarkable  variety 
of  character  in  the  whole  series.  The  Seven  Letters  were 
evidently  all  written  together,  in  the  inspiration  of  one 
occasion  and  one  purpose;  and  yet  how  different  each  is 


The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches  41 

from  all  the  rest,  in  spite  of  the  similarity  of  purpose  and 
plan  and  arrangement  in  them  all!  Each  of  the  Seven 
Churches  is  painted  with  a  character  of  its  own;  and  very 
different  futures  await  them.  The  writer  surveys  them 
from  the  point  of  view  of  one  who  believes  that  natural 
scenery  and  geographical  surroundings  exercise  a  strong 
influence  on  the  character  and  destiny  of  a  people.  He 
fixes  his  eye  on  the  broad  features  of  the  landscape.  In 
the  relations  of  sea  and  land,  river  and  mountains — rela- 
tions sometimes  permanent,  sometimes  mutable — he  reads 
the  tale  of  the  forces  that  insensibly  mould  the  minds  of 
men.  Now  that  is  not  a  book  which  he  that  runs  may 
read.  It  is  a  book  with  seven  seals,  which  can  be  opened 
only  by  long  familiarity,  earnest  patient  thought,  and  the 
insight  given  by  belief  and  love.  The  reader  must  have 
attuned  himself  to  harmony  with  the  city  and  the  natural 
influences  that  had  made  it.  St.  John  from  his  lofty 
standpoint  could  look  forward  into  the  future,  and  see  what 
should  come  to  each  of  his  Churches. 

He  assumes  always  that  the  Church  is,  in  a  sense,  the 
city.  The  local  Church  does  not  live  apart  from  the 
locality  and  the  population,  amid  which  it  has  a  mere 
temporary  abode.  The  Church  is  all  that  is  real  in  the 
city:  the  rest  of  the  city  has  failed  to  reach  its  true  self, 
and  has  been  arrested  in  its  development.  Similarly,  the 
local  Church  in  its  turn  has  not  all  attained  to  its  own 
perfect  development:  the  "angel"  is  the  truth,  the  reality, 
the  idea  (in  Platonic  sense)  of  the  Church.  Thus  in  that 
quaint  symbolism  the  city  bears  to  its  Church  the  same 
relation  that  the  Church  bears  to  its  angel.  But  here  we 
are  led  into  subjects  that  will  be  more  fully  discussed  in 
chapters  vi.  and  xvi.     For  the  present  we  shall  only  re- 


42  IV.  The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches 

view  in  brief  the  varied  characters  of  the  Seven  Churches 
and  the  Seven  Cities,  constituting  among  them  an  epitome 
of  the  Universal  Church  and  of  the  whole  range  of  human 
life. 

The  note  alike  in  the  Church  and  in  the  history  of 
Ephesus  has  been  change.  The  Church  was  enthusiastic; 
but  it  has  been  cooling.  It  has  fallen  from  its  high  plane 
of  conduct  and  spirit.  And  the  penalty  denounced  against 
it  is  that  it  shall  be  moved  out  of  its  place,  unless  it  re- 
creates its  old  spirit  and  enthusiasm :  "I  have  this  against 
thee  that  thou  didst  leave  thy  first  love.  Remember  therefore 
from  zvhcnce  thoii  art  fallen  and  repent  and  do  the  first 
works;  or  else  I  come  to  thee,  and  zvill  move  thy  lamp  out 
of  its  place."  And,  similarly,  in  the  history  of  the  city  the 
same  note  is  distinct.  An  extraordinary  series  of  changes 
and  vicissitudes  had  characterised  it,  and  would  continue 
to  do  so.  Mutability  was  the  law  of  its  being.  The  land 
and  the  site  of  the  city  had  varied  from  century  to  century. 
What  was  water  became  land ;  what  was  city  ceased  to  be 
inhabited;  what  was  bare  hillside  and  cultivated  lowland 
became  a  great  city  crowded  with  a  teeming  population; 
what  was  a  harbour  filled  with  the  shipping  of  the  whole 
world  has  become  a  mere  inland  sea  of  reeds,  through 
which  the  wind  moans  with  a  vast  volume  of  sound  like 
the  distant  waves  breaking  on  a  long  stretch  of  sea-coast 
in  storm. 

The  distinctive  note  of  the  letter  to  Smyrna  is  faithfulness 
that  gives  life,  and  appearance  bettered  by  reality.  The 
Church  "was  dead  and  lived,"  like  Him  who  addressed  it: 
it  was  poor,  but  rich :  it  was  about  to  suffer  for  a  period,  but 
the  period  is  definite,  and  the  suffering  comes  to  an  end, 
and  the  Church  will  prove  faithful  through  it  all  and  gain 


The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches  43 

"the  crown  of  life".  Such  also  had  the  city  been  in  history : 
it  gloried  in  the  title  of  the  faithful  friend  of  Rome,  true  to 
its  great  ally  alike  in  danger  and  in  prosperity.  The  con- 
ditions of  nature  amid  which  it  was  planted  were  firm  and 
everlasting.  Before  it  was  an  arm  of  the  vast,  unchanging, 
unconquerable  sea,  its  harbour  and  the  source  of  its  life 
and  strength.  Behind  it  rose  its  Hill  (Pagos)  crowned  with 
the  fortified  acropolis,  as  one  looks  at  it  from  the  front 
apparently  only  a  rounded  hillock  of  450  feet  elevation ; 
but  ascend  it,  and  you  discover  it  to  be  really  a  corner  of 
the  great  plateau  behind,  supported  by  the  immeasurable 
strength  of  the  Asian  continent  which  pushes  it  forward 
towards  the  sea.  The  letter  is  full  of  joy  and  life  and 
brightness,  beyond  all  others  of  the  Seven ;  and  such  is  the 
impression  the  city  still  makes  on  the  traveller  (who  usually 
comes  to  it  as  his  first  experience  of  the  towns  of  Asia 
Minor),  throwing  back  the  glittering  rays  of  the  sun  with 
proportionate  brightness,  while  its  buildings  spring  sharp 
out  of  the  sea  and  rise  in  tiers  up  the  front  slopes  of  its 
Pagos, 

Pergamum  stands  before  us  in  the  letter  as  the  city  of 
authority,  beside  the  throne — the  throne  of  this  world  and 
of  the  power  of  evil,  where  the  lord  of  evil  dwelleth.  And 
to  its  victorious  Church  is  promised  a  greater  authority,  the 
power  of  the  mighty  name  of  God,  known  only  to  the  giver 
and  the  receiver.  It  was  the  royal  city  of  history,  seat  of 
the  Attalid  Kings  and  chief  centre  of  the  Roman  Imperial 
administration ;  and  the  epithet  "royal"  is  the  one  that 
rises  unbidden  to  the  traveller's  lips,  especially  if  he  beholds 
it  after  seeing  the  other  great  cities  of  the  land,  with  its 
immense  acropolis  on  a  rock  rising  out  of  the  plain  like  a 
mountain,  self-centred  in  its  impregnable  strength,  looking 


44         IV.  The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches 

out  over  the  distant  sea  and  over  the  land  right  away  to 
the  hills  beside  far  off  Smyrna. 

Thyatira,  with  its  low  and  small  acropolis  in  its  beautiful 
valley,  stretching  north  and  south  like  a  long  funnel  between 
two  gently  swelling  ridges  of  hill,  conveys  the  impression  of 
mildness,  and  subjection  to  outward  influence,  and  inability 
to  surmount  and  dominate  external  circumstances.  The 
letter  to  Thyatira  is  mainly  occupied  with  the  inability  of 
the  Church  to  rise  superior  to  the  associations  and  habits 
of  contemporary  society,  and  its  contented  voluntary  acqui- 
escense  in  them  (which  was  called  the  Nicolaitan  heresy). 
Yet  even  in  the  humble  Thyatira  he  that  perseveres  to 
the  end  and  overcomes  shall  be  rewarded  with  irresistible 
power  among  the  nations,  that  smashing  power  which  its 
own  deity  pretends  to  wield  with  his  battle-axe,  a  power 
like  but  greater  than  that  of  mighty  Rome  itself.  In  the 
remnant  of  the  Thyatiran  Church,  which  shall  have  shown 
the  will  to  resist  temptation,  weakness  shall  be  made  strong. 

The  letter  to  the  Sardian  Church  breathes  the  spirit  of 
death,  of  appearance  without  reality,  promise  without  per- 
formance, outward  show  of  strength  betrayed  by  want  of 
watchfulness  and  careless  confidence.  Thou  hast  a  name 
that  thou  livest  and  thou  art  dead.  .  .  .  I  have  found  no  works 
of  thine  fulfilled.  .  .  .  I  will  come  as  a  thief  comes;  and  thou 
shalt  not  knoiv  what  hour  I  zvill  come  upon  thee.  And  such 
also  was  the  city  and  its  history.  Looked  at  from  a  little 
distance  to  the  north  in  the  open  plain,  Sardis  wore  an 
imposing,  commanding,  impregnable  aspect,  as  it  domin- 
ated that  magnificent  broad  valley  of  the  Hermus  from  its 
robber  stronghold  on  a  steep  spur  that  stands  out  boldly 
from  the  great  mountains  on  the  south.  But,  close  at  hand, 
the  hill  is  seen  to  be  but  mud,  slightly  compacted,  never 


The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches  45 

trustworthy  or  lasting,  crumbling  under  the  influences  of 
the  weather,  ready  to  yield  even  to  a  blow  of  the  spade. 
Yet  the  Sardians  always  trusted  to  it;  and  their  careless 
confidence  had  often  been  deceived,  when  an  adventurous 
enemy  climbed  in  at  some  unguarded  point,  where  the 
weathering  of  the  soft  rock  had  opened  a  way, 

Philadelphia  was  known  to  the  whole  world  as  the  city 
of  earthquakes,  whose  citizens  for  the  most  part  lived  out- 
side, not  venturing  to  remain  in  the  town,  and  were  always 
on  the  watch  for  the  next  great  catastrophe.  Those  who 
knew  it  best  were  aware  that  its  prosperity  depended  on 
the  great  road  from  the  harbour  of  Smyrna  to  Phrygia 
and  the  East.  Philadelphia,  situated  where  this  road  is 
about  to  ascend  by  a  difficult  pass  to  the  high  central 
plateau  of  Phrygia,  held  the  key  and  guarded  the  door. 
It  was  also  of  all  the  Seven  Cities  the  most  devoted  to  the 
name  of  the  Emperors,  and  had  twice  taken  a  new  title 
or  epithet  from  the  Imperial  god,  abandoning  in  one  case 
its  own  ancient  name.  The  Church  had  been  a  missionary 
Church,  and  Christ  Himself,  bearer  of  the  key  of  David, 
had  opened  the  door  before  it,  which  none  shall  shut.  He 
Himself  "zvill  keep  thee  from  the  hour  of  trial"  the  great 
and  imminent  catastrophe  that  shall  come  upon  the  whole 
world.  But  for  the  victor  there  remains  stability,  like  that 
of  the  strong  column  that  supports  the  temple  of  God ;  and 
he  shall  not  ever  again  need  to  go  out  for  safety ;  and  he 
shall  take  as  his  new  name  the  name  of  God  and  of  His 
city. 

The  Laodicean  Church  is  strongly  marked  in  the  letter 
as  the  irresolute  one,  which  had  not  been  able  to  make  up 
its  mind,  and  halted  half-heartedly,  neither  one  thing  nor 
another.    It  would  fain  be  enriched,  and  clad  in  righteous- 


46  IV.  The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches 

ness,  and  made  to  see  the  truth;  but  it  would  trust  to  itself; 
in  its  own  gold  it  would  find  its  wealth,  in  its  own  manu- 
factures it  would  make  its  garments,  in  its  own  famous 
medical  school  it  would  seek  its  cure;  it  did  not  feel  its 
need    but  was  content  with  what  it  had.     It  was  neither 
truly    Christian,   nor    frankly    pagan.      This    letter,    alone 
among  the  Seven,  seems  not  to  bring  the  character  of  the 
Church   into   close   relation   to   the   great  natural   features 
amid    which    the    city  .stood;   but  on    the    other    hand    it 
shows  a  very  intimate  connection  between  the  character 
attributed  to  the  Church  and  the  commerce  by  which  the 
city  had  grown  great. 

The  second  half  of  this  letter  gradually  passes  into  an 
epilogue  to  the  whole  Seven;  and  this  proves  that,  in  spite 
of  the  individual  character  of  each  letter,  they  form  after 
all  only  parts  in  an  elaborate  and  highly  wrought  piece  of 
literature.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  say  exactly  where  the 
individual  letter  ends  and  the  epilogue  begins;  in  appear- 
ance the  whole  bears  the  form  after  which  all  the  letters 
are  modelled ;  but  there  is  a  change  from  the  individuahsation 
of  the  letter  to  the  general  application  of  the  epilogue. 

To  comprehend  more  fully  the  individuality  of  the 
Seven  Letters  one  should  compare  them  with  the  letters  of 
Ignatius  to  the  five  Asian  Churches,  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Mag- 
nesia, Tralleis,  Philadelphia,  or  with  the  letter  of  Clement 
to  the  Corinthian  Church.  Ignatius,  it  is  true,  had  probably 
seen  only  two  of  the  five,  and  those  only  cursorily ;  so  that 
the  vagueness,  the  generality,  and  the  lack  of  individual 
traits  in  all  his  letters  were  inevitable.  He  insists  on  topics 
which  were  almost  equally  suitable  to  all  Christians,  or  on 
those  which  not  unnaturally  filled  his  own  mind  in  view  of 
his  coming  fate. 


The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches  47 

But  it  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  more  definite  and 
personal  and  individual  those  old  Christian  letters  are,  the 
more  vital  and  full  of  guidance  are  they  to  all  readers. 
The  individual  letters  touch  life  most  nearly;  and  the  life 
of  any  one  man  or  Church  appeals  most  intimately  to  all 
men  and  all  Churches. 

The  more  closely  we  study  the  New  Testament  books 
and  compare  them  with  the  natural  conditions,  the  localities 
and  the  too  scanty  evidence  from  other  sources  about  the 
life  and  society  of  the  first  century,  the  more  full  of  meaning 
do  we  find  them,  the  more  strongly  impressed  are  we  with 
their  unique  character,  and  the  more  wonderful  becomes 
the  picture  that  is  unveiled  to  us  in  them  of  the  growth  of 
the  Christian  Church.  It  is  because  they  were  written  with 
the  utmost  fulness  of  vigour  and  life  by  persons  who  were 
entirely  absorbed  in  the  great  practical  tasks  which  their 
rapidly  growing  organisation  imposed  on  them,  because 
they  stand  in  the  closest  relation  to  the  facts  of  the  age, 
that  so  much  can  be  gathered  from  them.  They  rise  to 
the  loftiest  heights  to  which  man  in  the  fulness  of  inspira- 
tion and  perfect  sympathy  with  the  Divine  will  and  purpose 
can  attain,  but  they  stand  firmly  planted  on  the  facts  of 
earth.  The  Asian  Church  was  so  successful  in  moulding 
and  modifying  the  institutions  around  it,  because  with  un- 
erring insight  its  leaders  saw  the  deep-seated  character  of 
those  Seven  Cities,  their  strength  and  their  weakness,  as 
determined  by  their  natural  surroundings,  their  past  history, 
and  their  national  character. 

This  series  of  studies  of  the  Seven  Letters  may  perhaps 
be  exposed  to  the  charge  of  imagining  fanciful  connections 
between  the  natural  surroundings  of  the  Seven  Cities  and 
the  tone  of  the  Letters.     Those  who    are    accustomed    to 


48  IV.  The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches 

the  variety  of  character  that  exists  in  the  West  may  refuse 
to  acknowledge  that  there  exists  any  such  connection 
between  the  character  of  the  natural  surroundings  and  the 
spirit,  the  Angel,  of  the  Church. 

But  Western  analogy  is  misleading.  We  Occidentals 
are  accustomed  to  struggle  against  Nature,  and  by  under- 
standing Nature's  laws  to  subjugate  her  to  our  needs. 
When  a  waterway  is  needed,  as  at  Glasgow,  we  transform 
a  little  stream  into  a  navigable  river.  Where  a  harbour  is 
necessary  to  supply  a  defect  in  nature,  we  construct  with 
vast  toil  and  at  great  cost  an  artificial  port.  We  regulate 
the  flow  of  dangerous  rivers,  utilising  all  that  they  can  give 
us  and  restraining  them  from  inflicting  the  harm  they  are 
capable  of.  Thus  in  numberless  ways  we  refuse  to  yield 
to  the  influences  that  surround  us,  and  by  hard  work  rise 
superior  in  some  degree  to  them. 

Such  analogy  must  not  be  applied  without  careful  con- 
sideration in  Asia.  There  man  is  far  more  under  the 
influence  of  nature ;  and  hence  results  a  homogeneity  of 
character  in  each  place  which  is  surprising  to  the  Western 
traveller,  and  which  he  can  hardly  believe  or  realise  with- 
out long  experience.  Partly  that  subjection  may  be  due 
to  the  fact  that  nature  and  the  powers  of  nature  are  on 
a  vaster  scale  in  Asia.  You  can  climb  the  highest  Alps, 
but  the  Himalayas  present  untrodden  peaks,  where  the 
powers  of  man  fail.  The  Eastern  people  have  had  little 
chance  of  subduing  and  binding  to  their  will  the  mighty 
rivers  of  Asia  (except  the  Chinese,  who  regulated  their 
greatest  rivers  more  than  2,000  years  ago).  The  Hindus 
have  come  to  recognise  the  jungle  as  unconquerable,  and 
its  wild  beasts  as  irresistible;  and  they  passively  acquiesce 
in  their  fate.     Vast  Asiatic  deserts  are  accepted  as  due 


( 


The  Letters  to  the  Seven  Churches  49 

to  the  will  of  God;  and  through  this  humble  resignation 
other  great  stretches  of  land,  which  once  were  highly  cul- 
tivated, have  come  to  be  marked  on  the  maps  as  desert, 
because  the  difficulties  of  cultivation  are  no  longer  sur- 
mountable by  a  passive  and  uninventive  population.  In 
Asia  mankind  has  accepted  nature;  and  the  attempts  to 
struggle  against  it  have  been  almost  wholly  confined  to  a 
remote  past  or  to  European  settlers. 

How  it  was  that  Asiatic  races  could  do  more  to  influence 
nature  at  a  very  early  time  than  they  have  ever  attempted 
in  later  times  is  a  problem  that  deserves  separate  considera- 
tion. Here  we  only  observe  that  they  themselves  attributed 
their  early  activity  entirely  to  religion :  the  Mother-Goddess 
herself  taught  her  children  how  to  conquer  Nature  by  obey- 
ing her  and  using  her  powers.  In  its  subsequent  steady 
degradation  their  religion  lost  that  early  power.^ 

But  among  the  experiences  which  specially  impress  the 
traveller  who  patiently  explores  Asia  Minor  step  by  step, 
village  by  village,  and  province  by  province,  perhaps  the 
most  impressive  of  all  is  the  extent  to  which  natural 
circumstances  mould  the  fate  of  cities  and  the  character 
of  men.  The  dominance  of  nature  is,  certainly,  more 
complete  now  than  it  was  of  old;  but  still  even  in  the 
early  ages  of  history  it  was  great;  and  it  is  a  main  factor 
both  in  moulding  the  historical  mythology,  or  mythical 
explanations  of  historical  facts  that  were  current  among 
the  ancient  peoples,  and  in  guiding  the  more  reasoned  and 
pretentious  scientific  explanations  of  history  set  forth  by 
the  educated  and  the  philosophers.  The  writer  of  the 
Seven  Letters  has  stated  in  them  his  view  of  the  history 
of  each  Church  in  harmony  with  the  prominent  features  of 
nature  around  the  city. 


CHAPTER  V. 

RELATION     OF     THE     CHRISTIAN     BOOKS     TO     CONTEMPORARY 
THOUGHT  AND  LITERATURE. 

Symbolism  does  not  take  up  so  large  a  space  in  the  Seven 
Letters  as  it  does  in  the  rest  of  the  Apocalypse.  In  the 
letters  the  writer  was  brought  more  directly  in  contact  with 
real  life  and  human  conduct ;  and  the  practical  character  of 
Christian  teaching  had  a  stronger  hold  on  him  when  he  felt 
himself,  even  in  literature,  face  to  face  with  a  real  congrega- 
tion of  human  beings,  and  pictured  to  himself  in  imagination 
their  history  and  their  needs,  their  faults  and  excellencies. 
Yet  even  in  the  letters  symbolism  plays  some  part ;  ideas 
and  objects  are  sometimes  named,  not  in  their  immediate 
sense,  but  as  representatives  or  signs  of  something  else. 
Not  merely  is  the  general  setting,  the  Seven  Stars,  the 
Lamps  (candle-sticks  in  the  Authorised  and  the  Revised 
Versions),  etc.,  symbolical:  even  in  the  letters  there  are 
many  expressions  whose  real  meaning  is  not  what  lies  on 
the  surface.  The  "crown  of  life,"  indeed,  may  be  treated 
as  a  mere  figure  of  speech ;  but  the  "ten  days"  of  suffering 
through  which  Smyrna  must  pass  can  hardly  be  regarded 
as  anything  more  than  "a  time  which  comes  to  an  end". 
Even  the  metaphors  and  other  figures  are  not  purely 
literary:  they  have  had  a  history,  and  have  acquired  a  re- 
cognised and  conventional  meaning.  The  "door,"  which  is 
mentioned  in  iii.  7,  would  hardly  be  intelligible  without 
regard  to  current  Christian  usage. 

(50) 


Relation  of  the  Christian  Books,  etc.  51 

Two  points  of  view  must  be  distinguished  in  this  case. 
In  the  first  place  a  regular,  generally  accepted  conventional 
symbolism  was  growing  up  among  the  Christians,  in  which 
Babylon  meant  Rome,  a  door  meant  an  opening  for  mis- 
sionary work,  and  so  on:  this  subject  has  not  yet  been 
properly  investigated  in  a  scientific  way,  apart  from  pre- 
judices and  prepossessions. 

In  the  second  place,  the  letters  were  written  to  be  under- 
stood by  the  Asian  congregations,  which  mainly  consisted 
of  converted  pagans.  The  ideas  expressed  in  the  letters 
had  to  be  put  in  a  form  which  the  readers  would  understand ; 
to  suit  their  understanding  the  figures  and  comparisons 
must  be  drawn  from  sources  and  objects  familiar  to  them ; 
the  words  must  be  used  in  the  sense  in  which  they  were 
commonly  employed  in  the  cities  addressed;  illustrations, 
which  were  needed  to  bring  home  to  the  readers  difficult 
ideas,  must  be  drawn  from  the  circle  of  their  experience 
and  education,  chapters  xi.  and  xiii. 

It  has  been  too  much  the  custom  to  regard  the  earliest 
Christian  books  as  written  in  a  specially  Christian  form  of 
speech,  standing  apart  and  distinguishable  from  the  common 
language  of  the  eastern  Roman  Provinces.  Had  that  been 
the  case,  it  is  not  too  bold  to  say  that  the  new  religion 
could  not  have  conquered  the  Empire.  It  was  because 
Christianity  appealed  direct  to  the  people,  addressed  them 
in  their  own  language,  and  made  itself  comprehensible  to 
them  on  their  plane  of  thought,  that  it  met  the  needs  and 
filled  the  heart  of  the  Roman  world. 

It  is  true  that  the  Christian  books  and  letters  had  to 
express  doctrines,  thoughts,  ideas,  truths,  which  were  in  a 
sense  new.  But  the  newness  and  strangeness  lay  in  the 
spirit,  not  in  the  words  or  the  metaphors  or  the  illustrations. 


52  V.    Relation  of  the  Christian  Books 

In  the  spirit  lies  the  essence  of  the  new  thought  and  the 
new  Ufe,  not  in  the  words.  This  may  seem  to  be,  and  in 
a  sense  it  is,  a  mere  truism.  Every  one  says  it,  and  has 
been  saying  it  from  the  beginning;  yet  it  is  sometimes 
strangely  ignored  and  misunderstood,  and  in  the  last  few 
years  we  have  had  some  remarkable  examples  of  this.  We 
have  seen  treatises  published  in  which  the  most  remarkable 
second-century  statement  of  the  essential  doctrines  and 
facts  of  Christianity,  the  epitaph  of  Avircius  Marcellus, — a 
statement  intended  and  declaring  itself  to  be  public,  popu- 
lar, before  the  eyes  and  minds  of  all  men — has  been  argued 
to  be  non-Christian,  because  every  single  word,  phrase 
and  image  in  it  is  capable  of  a  pagan  interpretation,  and 
can  be  paralleled  from  pagan  books  and  cults.  That  is 
perfectly  true ;  it  is  an  interesting  fact,  and  well  worthy  of 
being  stated  and  proved;  but  it  does  not  support  the  infer- 
ence that  is  deduced.  The  parts,  the  words,  are  individually 
capable  of  being  all  treated  as  pagan,  but  the  essence,  the 
spirit,  of  the  whole  is  Christian.  As  Aristotle  says,  a  thing 
is  more  than  the  sum  of  its  parts ;  the  essence,  the  reality, 
the  Ousia,  is  that  which  has  to  be  added  to  the  parts  in 
order  to  make  the  thing. 

It  is  therefore  proposed  in  the  present  work  to  employ 
ihe  same  method  as  in  all  the  writer's  other  investigations — 
to  regard  the  Apocalypse  as  written  in  the  current  language 
familiar  to  the  people  of  the  time,  and  not  as  expressed  in 
a  peculiar  and  artificial  Christian  language:  the  term  "arti- 
ficial" is  required,  because,  if  the  Christians  used  a  kind  of 
language  diflferent  from  that  of  the  ordinary  population,  it 
must  have  been  artificial. 

Nor  are  the  thoughts — one  might  almost  say,  though  the 
expression  must  not  be  misapplied  or  interpreted  in  a  way 


To  Contemporary  Thought  and  Literature        53 

different  from  what  is  intended — nor  are  the  thoughts  of 
the  Christian  books  alien  from  and  unfamiliar  to  the  period 
when  they  were  written.  They  stand  in  the  closest  relation 
to  the  period.  They  are  made  for  it:  they  suit  it:  they  are 
determined  by  it. 

We  take  the  same  view  about  all  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament.  They  spring  from  the  circumstances  of  their 
period,  whatever  it  was  in  each  case ;  they  are  suited  to 
its  needs;  in  a  way  they  think  its  thoughts,  but  think  them 
in  a  new  form  and  on  a  higher  plane ;  they  answer  the 
questions  which  men  were  putting,  and  the  answers  are 
expressed  in  the  language  which  was  used  and  understood 
at  the  time.  Hence,  in  the  first  place,  their  respective 
dates  can  be  assigned  with  confidence,  provided  we  under- 
stand the  history  and  familiarise  ourselves  with  the  thoughts 
and  ways  of  the  successive  periods.  No  one,  who  is  capable 
of  appreciating  the  tone  and  thought  of  different  periods, 
could  place  the  composition  of  any  of  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament  in  the  time  of  the  Antonines,  unless  he 
were  imperfectly  informed  of  the  character  and  spirit  of 
that  period ;  and  the  fact  that  some  modern  scholars  have 
placed  them  (or  some  of  them)  in  that  period  merely  shows 
with  what  light-hearted  haste  some  writers  have  proceeded 
to  decide  on  difficult  questions  of  literary  history  without 
the  preliminary  training  and  the  acquisition  of  knowledge 
imperatively  required  before  a  fair  judgment  could  be  pro- 
nounced. 

From  this  close  relation  of  the  Christian  books  to  the 
time  in  which  they  originated,  arises,  e.g.,  the  marvellously 
close  resemblance  between  the  language  used  about  the 
birth  of  the  divine  Augustus  and  the  language  used  about 
the  birth  of  Christ.     In  the  words  current  in  the  Eastern 


54  V.    Relation  of  the  Christian  Books 

Provinces,  especially  in  the  great  and  highly  educated  and 
"progressive"  cities  of  Asia,  shortly  before  the  Christian 
era,  the  day  of  the  birth  of  the  (Imperial)  God  was  the 
beginning  of  all  things;  it  inaugurated  for  the  world  the 
glad  tidings  that  came  through  him ;  through  him  there 
was  peace  on  earth  and  sea:  the  Providence,  which  orders 
every  part  of  human  life,  brought  Augustus  into  the  world, 
and  filled  him  with  the  virtue  to  do  good  to  men:  he  was 
the  Saviour  of  the  race  of  men,  and  so  on.i  Some  of  these 
expressions  became,  so  to  say,  stereotyped  for  the  Em- 
perors in  general,  especially  the  title  "Saviour  of  the  race 
of  men,"  and  phrases  about  doing  good  to  mankind ;  others 
were  more  peculiarly  the  property  of  Augustus. 

All  this  was  not  merely  the  language  of  courtly  panegyric. 
It  was  in  a  way  thoroughly  sincere,  with  all  the  sincerity 
that  the  people  of  that  overdeveloped  and  precocious  time, 
with  their  artificial,  highly  stimulated,  rather  feverish  intel- 
lect, were  capable  of  feeling.^  But  the  very  resemblance — 
so  startling,  apparently,  to  those  who  are  suddenly  con- 
fronted with  a  good  example  of  it — is  the  best  and  entirely 
sufficient  proof  that  the  idea  and  narrative  of  the  birth  of 
Christ  could  not  be  a  growth  of  mythology  at  a  later  time, 
even  during  the  period  about  a.d.  60-100,  but  sprang  from 
the  conditions  and  thoughts,  and  expressed  itself  in  the 
words,  of  the  period  to  which  it  professes  to  belong.  It  is 
to  a  great  extent  on  this  and  similar  evidence  that  the 
present  writer  has  based  his  confident  and  unhesitating 
opinion  as  to  the  time  of  origin  of  the  New  Testament 
books,  ever  since  he  began  to  understand  the  spirit  and 
language  of  the  period.  Before  he  began  to  appreciate 
them,  he  accepted  the  then  fashionable  view  that  they  were 
second  century  works. 


To  Contemporary  Thought  and  Literature        55 

But  so  far  removed  are  some  scholars  from  recognising 
the  true  bearing  of  these  facts,  and  the  true  relation  of  the 
New  Testament  to  the  life  and  thought  of  its  own  time, 
that  probably  the  fashionable  line  of  argument  will  soon 
be  that  the  narrative  of  the  Gospels  was  a  mere  imitation 
of  the  popular  belief  about  the  birth  of  Augustus,  and 
necessarily  took  its  origin  during  the  time  when  that  popu- 
lar belief  was  strong,  vis.,  during  the  last  thirty  years  of 
his  reign.  The  belief  died  with  him,  and  would  cease  to 
influence  thought  within  a  few  years  after  his  death:  he 
was  a  god  only  for  his  lifetime  (though  a  pretence  was 
made  of  worshipping  all  the  deceased  Emperors  who  were 
properly  deified  by  decree  of  the  Senate)  :  even  in  old  age 
it  is  doubtful  if  he  continued  to  make  the  same  impression 
on  his  people,  but  as  soon  as  he  died  a  new  god  took  his 
place.  New  ideas  and  words  then  ruled  among  men,  for 
the  new  god  never  was  heir  to  the  immense  public  belief 
which  hailed  the  divine  Augustus.  With  Tiberius  began  a 
new  era,  new  thoughts,  and  new  forms:  he  was  the  New 
Caesar,  Neos  Kaisar. 

There  are  already  some  signs  that,  as  people  begin  to 
learn  these  facts,  which  stand  before  us  on  the  stones  en- 
graved before  the  birth  of  Christ,  this  line  of  argument 
is  beginning  to  be  developed.  It  will  at  least  have  this 
great  advantage,  that  it  assigns  correctly  the  period  when 
the  Christian  narrative  originated,  and  that  it  cuts  away 
the  ground  beneath  the  feet  of  those  who  have  maintained 
that  the  Gospels  are  the  culmination  of  a  long  subsequent 
growth  of  mythology  about  a  more  or  less  historical  Jesus. 
The  Gospels,  as  we  have  them,  though  composed  in  the 
second  half,  and  for  the  most  part  in  the  last  quarter,  of 
the  first  century,  are  a  faithful  presentation  in  thought  and 


56        V.    Relation  of  the  Christian  Books,  etc. 

word  of  a  much  older  and  well-attested  history,  and  are 
only  in  very  small  degree  affected  by  the  thoughts  and 
language  of  the  period  when  their  authors  wrote,  remaining 
true  to  the  form  as  fixed  by  earlier  registration. 

Similarly,  the  Seven  Letters  are  the  growth  of  their  time, 
and  must  be  studied  along  with  it.  They  belong  to  the 
last  quarter  of  the  first  century ;  and  it  is  about  that  time 
that  we  may  look  for  the  best  evidence  as  to  the  meaning 
that  they  would  bear  to  their  original  readers. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  SYMBOLISM   OF  THE  SEVEN  LETTERS. 

In  attempting  to  get  some  clear  idea  with  regard  to  the 
symbolism  involved  in  the  Seven  Letters,  it  is  not  proposed 
to  discuss  the  symbolism  of  the  Apocalypse  as  a  whole, 
still  less  the  religious  or  theological  intention  of  its  author. 
The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  much  more  modest — merely 
to  try  to  determine  what  was  the  meaning  which  ordinary 
people  in  the  cities  of  Asia  would  gather  from  the  sym- 
bolism: especially  how  would  they  understand  the  Seven 
Stars,  the  Lamps  and  the  Angels.  That  is  a  necessary 
preliminary,  if  we  are  to  appreciate  the  way  in  which  Asian 
readers  would  understand  the  book  and  the  letters  ad- 
dressed to  them. 

In  the  Seven  Letters  symbolism  is  less  obtrusive  and 
more  liable  to  be  unnoticed  than  in  the  visions  that  follow ; 
and  it  will  best  show  their  point  of  view  to  take  first  a 
simple  example  of  the  figures  which  march  across  the  stage 
of  the  Apocalypse  itself  in  the  later  chapters.  Those  figures 
are  to  be  interpreted  according  to  the  symbols  which  they 
bear  and  the  accompaniments  of  their  progress  before  the 
eyes  of  the  seer.  It  is  the  same  process  of  interpretation  as 
is  applied  in  the  study  of  Greek  art:  for  example  a  horse- 
man almost  identical  in  type  and  action  appears  on  the  two 
coins  represented  on  pages  318,  319.  In  one  this  horseman 
is  marked  by  the  battle-axe  which  he  carries  as  the  warlike 
hero  of  the  military  colony  Thyatira.     The  other  shows 

(57) 


58       VI.    The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Letters 

a   more   peaceful   figure,   the   Emperor   Caracalla   visiting 

Thyatira. 

Similarly,  in  vi.  2  the  bowman  sitting  on  a  white  horse, 

to  whom  a  crown  was  given,  is  the  Parthian  king.     The 

bow  was  not  a  Roman  weapon:  it  was  not  used  in  Roman 

armies  except  by  a  few  auxiliaries  levied  among  outlying 

tribes,  who  carried  their  national  weapon.     The  Parthian 

weapon  was  the  bow ;  the  warriors  were  all  horsemen ;  and 

they  could  use  the  bow  as  well  when  they  were  fleeing 

as  when  they  were  charging.     The  writers  of  that  period 

often  mention  the  Parthian  terror  on  the  East,  and  their 

devastating  incursions  were  so  much  dreaded  at  that  time 

that   Trajan   undertook   a   Parthian   war   in    115.     Virgil 

foretells  a  Roman  victory:  the  bow  and  the  horse  have 

been  useless: — 

With  backward  bows  the  Parthians  shall  be  there, 
And,  spurring  from  the  fight,  confess  their  fear. 

Colour  was  also  an  important  and  significant  detail.  The 
Parthian  king  in  vi.  2  rides  on  a  white  horse.  White  had 
been  the  sacred  colour  among  the  old  Persians,  for  whom 
the  Parthians  stood  in  later  times ;  and  sacred  white  horses 
accompanied  every  Persian  army.  The  commentators  who 
try  to  force  a  Roman  meaning  on  this  figure  say  that  the 
Roman  general,  when  celebrating  a  Triumph,  rode  on  a 
white  horse.  This  is  a  mistake ;  the  general  in  a  Triumph 
wore  the  purple  and  gold-embroidered  robes  of  Jupiter,  and 
was  borne  like  the  god  in  a  four-horse  car.    See  p.  386. 

The  use  of  colour  here  as  symbolical  is  illustrated  by 
the  custom  of  Tamerlane.  When  he  laid  siege  to  a  city, 
he  put  up  white  tents,  indicating  clemency  to  the  enemy. 
If  resistance  was  prolonged  forty  days,  he  changed  the 
tents,  and  put  up  red  ones,  portending  a  bloody  capture. 


The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Letters  59 

If  obstinate  resistance  was  persisted  in  for  other  forty  days, 
black  tents  were  substituted :  the  city  was  to  be  sacked 
with  a  general  massacre.  The  meaning  of  the  colours 
differs;  there  was  no  universal  principle  of  interpretation; 
significance  depended  to  some  extent  on  circumstances 
and  individual  preference. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  St.  John  consciously 
modelled  his  descriptions  on  works  of  art.  He  saw  the 
figures  march   across   the  heavens.     But  such   ideas   and 


^    ,  The  ideal  Parthian  king,  as  he  appears  on 


'■■! 


Parthian  Coins,  150  B.C. -200  A.D. 


symbolic  forms  were  in  the  atmosphere  and  in  the  minds 
of  men  at  the  time;  and  the  ideas  with  which  he  was 
familiar  moulded  the  imagery  of  his  visions,  unconsciously 
to  himself.  It  is  quite  in  the  style  of  Greek  art  that  one 
monster  in  xiii.  should  rise  from  the  sea  and  the  other 
appear  out  of  the  earth  (as  we  shall  see  in  chapter  vii.)  ; 
but  those  ideas  are  used  with  freedom.  The  shapes  of  the 
monsters  are  not  of  Greek  art;  they  are  modifications  of 
traditional  apocalyptic  devices ;  but  the  seer  saw  them  in 


6o       VI.     The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Letters 

situations  whose  meaning  we  interpret  from  the  current 
ideas  and  forms  of  art.  Hence,  e.g.,  in  the  Pergamenian 
letter,  the  white  stone  is  not  to  be  explained  as  an  imita- 
tion of  a  precisely  similar  white  stone  used  in  ordinary 
pagan  life  (as  most  recent  commentators  suppose)  ;  it  is 
a  free  employment  of  a  common  form  in  a  new  way  to 
suit  a  Christian  idea.  The  current  forms  are  used  in  the 
Apocalypse,  not  slavishly,  but  creatively  and  boldly ;  and 


Fig.  2 


The  Parthian  king  welcomed  by  the  genius  of  the  capital. 
Parthian  Coins,  42-65  a.d. 


they  must  not  be  interpreted  pedantically.     A  new  spirit 
has  been  put  into  them  by  the  writer. 

Thus  to  refer  to  the  Parthian  king  of  vi.  2:  the  type  of 
the  archer-horseman  was  familiar  to  the  thought  of  all  in 
the  eastern  Provinces ;  but  if  we  look  at  the  most  typical 
representations,  those  which  occur  on  coins,  we  find  the 
various  elements  separately,  but  not  united.  The  regular 
reverse  type  on  Parthian  coins  shows  the  founder  of  the 
race,  Arsaces,  deified  as  Apollo,  sitting  on  the  holy  omphalos, 
and  holding  the  bow,  the   symbol  of  authority  based  on 


The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Letters 


6i 


military  power  (see  Fig.  i,  p.  59).  A  rarer  type,  though 
common  on  coins  of  King  Vonones  (83-100  a.d.)  and  of 
Artabanus  III.  (42-65),  shows  the  monarch  on  horseback 
welcomed  by  the  genius  of  the  State :  Fig.  2  gives  the 
type  of  Artabanus :  the  king  wears  Oriental  attire  with 
characteristic  full  trousers.  The  coins  of  Vonones  have  a 
type  similar,  but  complicated  by  the  addition  of  a  third 
figure. 


(  Parthian  captives  sitting  under  a  Roman  trophy, 
i  Coin  of  Trajan,  116  a,d. 


In  Greek  and  Roman  art  the  Parthian  appears,  not  as 
victor,  but  as  vanquished.  The  coins  of  Trajan  show  two 
Parthian  captives,  a  man  and  a  woman,  under  a  trophy  of 
Roman  victory.  St.  John  describes  the  Parthian  king  as 
seen  by  Roman  apprehension,  followed  by  Bloodshed, 
Scarcity  and  Death ;  but  that  point  of  view  was  naturally 
alien  to  art,  except  the  art  practised  in  Parthia.  The 
spirit  of  the  artist,  or  of  the  seer  of  the  visions,  gives  form 
to  the  pictures,  and  they  must  be  interpreted  by  the  spirit. 


62       VI.    The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Letters 

As  to  the  letters,  we  notice  that  there  are  two  pairs  of 
ideas  mentioned  in  i.  20,  "the  seven  stars  are  the  angels 
of  the  Seven  Churches;  and  the  seven  lamps  are  Seven 
Churches".  Of  these,  the  second  pair  stand  on  the  earth ; 
and  in  the  first  pair,  since  the  stars  belong  to  heaven,  the 
angels  also  must  belong  to  heaven.  There  is  the  earthly 
pair,  the  Churches  and  the  lamps  that  symbolise  them ; 
and  there  is  the  corresponding  heavenly  pair,  the  angels 
and  the  stars  which  symbolise  them. 

A  similar  correspondence  between  a  higher  and  a  lower 
embodiment  of  Divine  character  may  frequently  be  observed 
in  the  current  religious  conceptions  of  that  time.  We  find 
amid  the  religious  monuments  of  Asia  Minor  certain  reliefs, 
which  seem  to  represent  the  Divine  nature  on  two  planes, 
expressed  by  the  device  of  two  zones  in  the  artistic  group- 
ing. There  is  an  upper  zone  showing  the  Divine  nature  on 
the  higher,  what  may  be  called  the  heavenly  plane ;  and 
there  is  a  lower  zone,  in  which  the  God  is  represented  as 
appearing,  under  the  form  of  his  priest  and  representative, 
among  the  worshippers  who  come  to  him  on  earth,  to 
whom  he  reveals  the  right  way  of  approaching  him  and 
serving  him,  and  whom  he  benefits  in  return  for  their  ser- 
vice and  offering  duly  completed.  One  of  the  best  ex- 
amples of  this  class  of  monuments,  dated  a.d.  100,  and 
belonging  to  the  circuit  of  Philadelphia,  is  published  here 
for  the  first  time^  after  a  sketch  made  by  Mrs.  Ramsay  in 
1884.  The  lower  zone  is  a  scene  representing,  according  to 
a  type  frequent  in  late  art,  an  ordinary  act  of  public  worship. 
At  the  right  hand  side  of  an  altar,  which  stands  under  the 
sacred  tree,  a  priest  is  performing  on  the  altar  the  rite  by 
means  of  which  the  worshippers  are  brought  into  communi- 
cation with  the  God.    The  priest  turns  towards  the  left  to 


The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Letters 


63 


face  the  altar,  and  behind  him  are  five  figures  in  an  attitude 
nearly  uniform  (the  position  of  the  left  hand  alone  varies 
slightly),  who  must  represent  the  rest  of  the  college  of 
priests  attached  to  the  sanctuary.  Their  names  are  given 
in  the  inscription  vi^hich  is  engraved  under  the  relief.  There 
was  always  a  college  of  priests,  often  in  considerable  num- 
bers, attached  to  the  great  sanctuaries  or  hiera  of  Anatolia ; 


s 

s 

yy\ 

r^^ 

^ 

» 

% 

(Ti 

~^W 

\^ 

p 

1' 

m 

Wjl 

r\ 

^ 
^ 

s 

it 

V  t-v 

rtrs 

Fig.  4. — The  sacrifice  on  earth  and  in  heaven  :  relief  from  Koloe  in  Lydia. 


those  priests  must  be  distinguished  from  the  attendants, 
ministers,  and  inferiors,  of  whom  there  were  large  numbers 
(in  some  cases  several  thousands). 

The  existence  of  such  colleges  gives  special  importance 
to  the  Bezan  text  of  Acts  xiv.  13,  in  which  the  priests  of  .the 
shrine  of  Zeus  "Before-the-City,"  at  Lystra,  are  mentioned 
— whereas  the  accepted  text  mentions  only  a  single  priest. 


64       VI.     The  Symholism  of  the  Seven  Letters 

Professor  Blass  in  his  note  rejects  the  Bezan  reading  on 
the  ground  that  there  was  only  one  priest  for  each  temple ; 
but  his  argument  is  founded  on  purely  Greek  custom  and 
is  not  correct  for  Anatolian  temples,  like  the  one  at  Lystra, 
where  there  was  always  a  body  or  college  of  priests.  In 
the  relief  which  we  are  now  studying  the  mutilation  of  the 
inscription  makes  the  number  of  the  priests  uncertain ;  but 
either  seven  or  eight  were  mentioned.  At  the  Milyadic 
hieron  of  the  same  God,  Zeus  Sabazios,  the  college  num- 
bered six:  at  Pessinus  the  college  attached  to  the  hieron 
of  the  Great  Mother  contained  at  least  ten.2 

On  the  left  side  of  the  altar  stand  seven  figures  looking 
towards  the  altar  and  the  priest.  These  represent  the 
crowd  of  worshippers. 

In  the  upper  zone  the  central  action  corresponds  exactly 
to  the  scene  in  the  lower  zone:  the  god  stands  on  a  raised 
platform  on  the  right  hand  side  of  an  altar,  on  which  he 
performs  the  same  act  of  ritual  which  his  priest  is  perform- 
ing straight  below  him  on  the  lower  plane,  probably  pouring 
out  a  libation  over  oflferings  which  lie  on  the  altar.  In 
numerous  reliefs  and  coins  of  Asia  Minor  a  god  or  goddess 
is  represented  performing  the  same  act  over  an  altar.  That 
one  act  stands  symbolically  for  the  whole  series  of  ritual 
acts,  just  as  in  Rev.  ii.  13  Antipas  stands  for  the  entire  body 
of  the  martyrs  who  had  suffered  in  Asia.  The  deity  has 
revealed  to  men  the  ritual  whereby  they  can  approach  him 
in  purity,  and  present  their  gifts  and  prayers  with  assurance 
that  these  will  be  favourably  received:  thus  the  god  is  his 
own  first  priest,  and  later  priests  were  regarded  by  the 
devout  as  representatives  of  the  god  on  earth,  wearing  his 
dress,  acting  for  him  and  performing  before  his  worshippers 
on  earth  the  life  and  actions  of  the  god  on  his  loftier  plane 


The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Letters         65 

of  existence.^  In  this  relief  the  intention  is  obviou'5 :  as  a 
sign  and  guarantee  that  he  accepts  the  sacred  rite,  the  god 
is  doing  in  heaven  exactly  the  same  act  that  his  priest  is 
performing  on  eaith. 

On  the  right  of  the  raised  platform  stand  three  figures, 
with  the  right  hand  raised  in  adoration.  These  represent 
the  college  of  priests,  headed  by  the  chief  priest ;  and  all 
must  be  understood  to  make  the  same  gesture,  though  the 
right  hands  of  the  second  and  third  are  hidden.  The  action 
of  the  priests  who  stand  in  the  lower  zone  behind  the  chief 
priest  must  be  interpreted  in  the  same  way.  The  gesture 
of  adoration  is  illustrated  by  the  figures  on  pp.  285,  319. 

On  the  left  of  the  platform  another  scene  in  the  ritual 
and  life  of  the  god  is  represented.  He  drives  forth  in  his 
car  to  make  his  annual  progress  through  his  own  land  to 
receive  the  homage  of  his  people.  He  is  marked  as  Zeus 
by  the  eagle  which  sits  on  the  reins  or  the  trappings  of  the 
horses,  and  as  Sabazios  by  the  serpent  on  the  ground  be- 
neath their  feet.  Beside  the  horses  walks  his  compan  on 
god,  regarded  as  his  son  in  the  divine  genealogy,  and 
marked  as  Hermes  by  the  winged  caduceus  which  he  carries, 
and  as  Men  by  the  crescent  and  the  pointed  Phrygian  cap. 
The  divine  nature  regarded  as  male  was  commonly  con- 
ceived in  this  double  form  as  father  and  son  ;  and  when 
these  Anatolian  ideas  were  expressed  under  Greek  forms 
and  names,  they  were  described  sometimes  as  Zeus  and 
Hermes  (so  in  Acts  xiv.  10,  and  in  this  relief),  sometimes 
as  Zeus  and  Apollo  or  Dionysus.  When  the  deity  in  his 
male  character  was  conceived  as  a  single  impersonation, 
he  was  called  in  Greek  sometimes  by  one,  sometimes  by 
another  of  those  four  names.  The  Greek  names  were  used 
in  this  loose  varying  way,  because  none  of  them  exactly 


66      VI.    The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Letters 

corresponded  to  the  nature  of  the  Anatolian  conception  ; 
and  sometimes  one  name,  sometimes  another,  seemed  to 
correspond  best  to  the  special  aspect  of  the  Anatolian  god 
which  was  prominent  at  the  moment. 

The  god  on  the  car  is  here  represented  as  beardless,  but 
the  god  on  the  platform  is  beai  ded  ;  and  yet  the  two  are 
presentments  of  the  same  divine  power.  But  this  relief  is 
a  work  of  symbolism,  not  a  work  of  art :  it  aims  not  at 
artistic  or  dramatic  truth,  but  at  showing  the  divine  nature 
in  two  of  the  characters  under  which  it  reveals  itself  to  man  : 
the  object  of  the  artist  was  to  express  a  meaning,  not  to 
arrive  at  beauty  or  consistency. 

The  interpretation  which  has  just  been  stated  of  this 
symbolical  relief  would  be  fairly  certain  from  the  analogy 
of  other  monuments  of  the  same  class  ;  but  it  is  placed 
beyond  doubt  by  the  inscription  which  occupies  the  broad 
lower  zone  of  the  stone:  "in  the  year  185  (A.D.  lOO-ioi), 
the  thirtieth  of  Daisios  (22nd  May),  when  Glykon  was 
Stephanephoros,  the  people  of  Koloe  consecrated  Zeus 
Sabazios,  the  priests  being  Apollonius,"  etc.  (probably 
seven  others  were  named  ^ 

The  people  consecrated  Zeus  Sabazios  either  by  building 
him  a  temple,  or  simply  by  erecting  a  statue  in  his  honour : 
in  either  case  the  action  was  a  stage  in  the  gradual  Hellen- 
ising  of  an  Anatolian  cult  in  outward  show  by  making  it 
more  anthropomorphic.  The  original  Anatolian  religion 
was  much  less  anthropomorphic  ;  it  had  holy  places  rather 
than  temples,  and  worshipped  "  the  God  "  rather  than  indi- 
vidualised and  specialised  embodiments  of  him.*  Under 
the  influence  of  Greek  and  other  foreign  examples,  temples 
and  statues  were  introduced  into  that  simple  old  religion. 
It  is  impossible  to  get  back  to  a  stage  in  which  it  was 


The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Letters         6y 

entirely  imageless  and  without  built  temples  ;  but  certainly 
in  its  earlier  stages  images  and  temples  played  a  much 
smaller  part  than  in  the  later  period. 

The  symbolism  of  this  monument  is  so  instructive  with 
regard  to  the  popular  religious  views  in  Anatolia  that  a  de- 
tailed study  of  it  forms  the  best  introduction  to  this  subject. 
The  monument  is  now  built  into  the  inner  wall  of  a  house 
at  Koula,  a  considerable  town  in  Eastern  Lydia ;  but  it  was 
brought  there  from  a  place  about  twenty-five  miles  to  the 
north.  It  originates  therefore  from  a  secluded  part  of  the 
country,  where  Anatolian  religious  ideas  were  only  beginning 
to  put  on  an  outward  gloss  of  Hellenism,  though  their  real 
character  was  purely  Asian.  Greek  however  was  the  lan- 
guage of  the  district. 

It  is  fundamentally  the  same  idea  of  a  higher  and  a  lower 
plane  of  existence  that  is  expressed  in  the  symbolism  of 
the  Angels  and  the  Stars  in  heaven,  corresponding  to  the 
Churches  and  the  Lamps  on  earth.  The  lamp,  which 
represents  the  Church,  is  a  natural  and  obvious  symbol. 
The  Church  is  Divine  :  it  is  the  kingdom  of  God  among 
men  :  in  it  shines  the  light  that  illumines  the  darkness  of 
the  world. 

The  heavenly  pair  is  more  difficult  to  express  precisely 
in  its  relation  to  the  earthly  pair.  There  seems  to  be 
involved  here  a  conception,  common  in  ancient  time  gen- 
erally, that  there  are  intermediate  grades  of  existence  to 
bridge  over  the  vast  gap  between  the  pure  Divine  nature 
and  the  earthly  manifestation  of  it.  Thus  the  star  and 
the  angel,  of  whom  the  star  is  the  symbol,  are  the  inter- 
mediate stage  between  Christ  and  His  Church  with  its 
lamp  shining  in  the  world.  This  symbolism  was  taken 
over  by  St.  John  from  the  traditional  forms  of  expression 


63      VI.   The  Symbolism  of  the  Sevc?i  Letters 

in  theories  regarding  the  Divine  nature  and  its  relation 
to  the  world. 

Again,  we  observe  that,  in  the  reh'gious  symbolic  language 
of  the  first  century,  a  star  denoted  the  heavenly  existence 
corresponding  to  a  divine  being  or  divine  creation  or  exist- 
ence located  on  earth.  Thus,  in  the  language  of  the  Roman 
poets,  the  divine  figure  of  the  Emperor  on  earth  has  a  star 
in  heaven  that  corresponds  to  it  and  is  its  heavenly  counter- 
part So  the  Imperial  family  as  a  whole  is  also  said  to 
have  its  star,  or  to  be  a  star.  It  is  a  step  towards  this  kind 
of  symbolic  phraseology  when  Horace  {Odes,  i.,  12)  speaks 
of  the  Julian  star  shining  like  the  moon  amid  the  lesser  fires; 
but  probably  Horace  was  hardly  conscious  of  having  ad- 
vanced in  this  expression  beyond  the  limits  of  mere  poetic 
metaphor.  But  when  Domitian  bu  It  a  Temple  of  the  Im- 
perial Flavian  family,  the  poet  Statins  describes  him  as 
placing  the  stars  of  his  family  (the  Flavian)  in  a  new  heaven 
{Silv(Z,  v.,  I,  240  f.).  There  is  implied  here  a  similar  con- 
ception to  that  which  we  are  studying  in  the  Revelation : 
the  new  Temple  on  earth  corresponds  to  a  new  heaven 
framed  to  contain  the  new  stars  ;  the  divine  Emperors  of 
the  Flavian  family  (along  with  any  other  member  of  the 
family  who  had  been  formally  deified)  are  the  earthly  ex- 
istences dwelling  in  the  new  Temple,  as  the  stars,  their 
heavenly  counterparts,  move  in  the  new  heaven.  The 
parallel  is  close,  however  widely  separate  the  theological 
ideals  are  ;  and  the  date  of  Statius's  poem  is  about  the 
last  year  of  Domitian's  reign,  A.D.  95-96. 

The  star,  then,  is  obviously  the  heavenly  object  which 
corresponds  to  the  lamp  shining  on  the  earth,  though 
superior  in  character  and  purity  to  it ;  and,  as  the  lamp 
on  earth   is  to  the  star   in  heaven,  so  is  the  Church  on 


The  Syvibolisjn  of  the  Seven  Letters         69 

earth  to  the  angel.  Such  is  the  relation  clearly  indicated. 
The  angel  is  a  corresponding  existence  on  another  and 
higher  plane,  but  mo'.e  pure  in  essence,  more  closely  as- 
sociated with  the  Divine  nature  than  the  individual  Church 
on  earth  can  be. 

Now,  what  is  the  angel  ?  How  shall  he  be  defined  or 
described  ?  In  answer  to  this  question,  then,  one  must 
attempt  to  describe  what  is  meant  by  the  angels  of  the 
Churches  in  these  chapters,  although  as  soon  as  the  de- 
scription is  written,  one  recognises  that  it  is  inadequate 
and  hardly  correct.  The  angel  of  the  Church  seems  to 
embod}'and  gather  together  in  a  personification  the  powers, 
the  character,  the  history  and  life  and  unity  of  the  Church. 
The  angel  represents  the  Divine  presence  and  the  Divine 
power  in  the  Church ;  he  is  the  Divine  guarantee  of  the 
vitality  and  effectiveness  of  the  Church. 

This  seems  clear ;  but  the  dif^culty  begins  when  we  ask 
what  is  the  relation  of  the  angel  to  the  faults  and  sins  of 
his  Church,  and,  above  all,  to  the  punishment  which  awaits 
and  is  denounced  against  those  sins.  The  Church  in 
Smyrna  or  in  Ephesus  suffers  from  the  faults  and  weak- 
nesses of  the  men  who  compose  it :  it  is  guilty  of  their 
crimes,  and  it  will  be  punished  in  their  person.  Is  the 
angel,  too,  guilty  of  the  sins  ?  Is  he  to  bear  the  punish- 
ment for  tliem  ? 

Undoubtedly  the  angel  is  touched  and  affected  by  the 
sins  of  his  Church.  Nothing  else  is  conceivable.  He  could 
not  be  the  counterpart  or  the  double  of  a  Church,  unless  he 
was  affected  in  some  way  by  its  failings.  But  the  angels 
of  the  Churches  are  addressed,  not  simply  as  touched  by 
their  faults,  but  as  guilty  of  them.  Most  of  the  angels 
have  been  guilty  of  serious,  even  deadly  sins.     The  angel 


7o     VI.   The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Letters 

of  Sardis  is  dead,  though  he  has  the  name  of  being  alive. 
The  angel  of  Laodicea  is  lukewarm  and  spiritless,  and  shall 
be  rejected.  Threats,  also,  are  directed  against  the  angels : 
"  I  will  come  against  thee,"  "  1  will  spit  thee  out  of  my 
mouth,"  "  I  will  come  to  thee  "  (or  rather  "  I  will  come  in 
displeasure  at  thee"  is  the  more  exact  meaning,  as  Professor 
Moulton  points  out).  Again,  the  angel  is  regarded  as  re- 
sponsible for  any  neglect  of  the  warning  now  given,  "  and 
thou  shalt  not  know  what  hour  I  will  come  upon  thee"  : 
"  thou  art  the  wretched  one,  and  poor,  and  miserable,  and 
blind,  and  naked  ". 

These  expressions  seem  to  make  it  clear  that  the  angel 
could  be  guilty,  and  must  suffer  punishment  for  his  guilt. 
This  is  certainly  surprising,  and,  moreover,  it  is  altogether 
inconsistent  with  our  previous  conclusion  that  the  angel  is 
the  heavenly  counterpart  of  the  Church.  He  who  is  guilty 
and  responsible  for  guilt  cannot  stand  anywhere  except  on 
the  earth. 

The  inconsistency,  however,  is  due  to  the  inevitable  failure 
of  the  writer  fully  to  carry  out  the  symbolism.  It  is  not  so 
difficult  to  follow  out  an  allegory  perfectly,  so  long  as  the 
writer  confines  himself  to  the  realm  of  pure  fancy  ;  but,  if  he 
comes  into  the  sphere  of  reality  and  fact,  he  soon  finds  that 
the  allegory  cannot  be  wrought  out  completely  ;  it  will  not 
fit  the  details  of  life.  When  John  addresses  the  angels  as 
guilty,  he  is  no  longer  thinking  of  them,  but  of  the  actual 
Churches  which  he  knew  on  earth.  The  symbolism  was 
complicated  and  artificial ;  and,  when  he  began  to  write 
the  actual  letters,  he  began  to  feel  that  he  was  addressing 
the  actual  Churches,  and  the  symbolism  dropped  from  him 
in  great  degree.  Nominally  he  addresses  the  Angel,  but 
really  he  writes  to  the  Church  of  Ephesus  or  of  Sardis ;  or 


The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Letters         yi 

rather,  all  distinction  between  the  Church  and  its  angel 
vanishes  from  his  mind.  He  comes  into  direct  contact  with 
real  life,  and  thinks  no  longer  of  correctness  in  the  use  of 
symbols  and  in  keeping  up  the  elaborate  and  rather  awk- 
ward allegory.  He  writes  naturally,  directly,  unfettered  by 
symbolical  consistency. 

The  symbolism  was  imposed  on  the  writer  of  the  Apo- 
calypse by  the  rather  crude  literary  model,  which  he 
imitated  in  obedience  to  a  prevalent  Jewish  fashion.  He 
followed  his  model  very  faitiifully,  so  much  so  that  his 
work  has  by  some  been  regarded  as  a  purely  Jewish  original, 
slightly  modified  by  additions  and  interpolations  to  a 
Christian  character,  but  restorable  to  its  original  Jewish 
form  by  simple  excision  of  a  few  words  and  paragraphs. 
But  we  regard  the  Jewish  element  in  it  as  traditional,  due 
to  the  strong  hold  which  this  established  form  of  literature 
exerted  on  the  author.  That  element  only  fettered  and 
impeded  him  by  its  fanciful  and  unreal  character,  making 
his  work  seem  far  more  Jewish  than  it  really  is.  Some- 
times, however,  the  traditional  form  proves  wholly  inade- 
quate to  express  his  thoughts ;  and  he  discards  it  for  the 
moment  and  speaks  freely. 

It  is  therefore  vain  to  attempt  to  give  a  rigidly  accurate 
definition  of  the  meaning  which  is  attached  to  the  term 
"  angel "  in  these  chapters.  All  that  concerns  the  angels 
is  vague,  impalpable,  elusive,  defying  analysis  and  scientific 
precision.  You  cannot  tell  where  in  the  Seven  Letters, 
taken  one  by  one,  the  idea  "angel"  drops  and  the  idea 
"Church"  takes  its  place.  You  cannot  feel  certain  what 
characteristics  in  the  Seven  Letters  may  be  regarded  as 
applying  to  the  angels,  and  what  must  be  separated  from 
them.     But  the  vague  description  given  in  preceding  para- 


72      VI.     The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Letters 


graphs  viri  be  sufficient  for  use ;  and  it  may  be  made 
clearer  by  quoting  Professor  J.  H.  Moulton's  description  of 
angels :  "  Spiritual  counterparts  of  human  individuals  or 
communities,  dwelling  in  heaven,  but  subject  to  changes 
depending  on  the  good  or  evil  behaviour  of  their  comple- 
mentary beings  on  earth  ".* 

How  far  did  St.  John,  in  employing  the  symbolism 
current  at  the  time,  accept  and  approve  it  as  a  correct 
statement  of  truth  ?  That  question  naturally  arises  ;  but 
the  answer  seems  inevitable.  He  regards  this  symbolism 
merely  as  a  way  of  making  spiritual  ideas  intelligible  to 
the  ordinary  human  mind,  after  the  fashion  of  the  parables 
in  the  life  of  Christ  He  was  under  the  influence  of  the 
common  and  accepted  ways  of  expressing  spiritual,  or 
philosophical,  or  theological  truth,  just  as  he  was  under 
the  influence  of  fashionable  forms  in  literature.  He  took 
these  and  made  the  best  he  could  of  them.  The  apoca- 
lyp'ic  form  of  literature  was  far  from  being  a  high  one  ; 
and  the  Apocalypse  of  John  suffers  from  the  unfortunate 
choice  of  this  form :  only  occasionally  is  the  author  able 
to  free  himself  from  the  chilling  influence  of  that  fanciful 
and  extravagant  mode  of  expression.  The  marked  differ- 
ence in  character  and  power  between  the  Apocalypse  and 
the  Gospel  of  St.  John  is  in  great  measure  due  to  the  poor 
models  which  he  followed  in  the  former. 

It  is  interest  ng  that  one  of  the  most  fashionable  methods 
of  expressing  highl}/  generalised  truths  or  principles — the 
genealogical  method  ^ — is  never  employed  by  John  (except 
in  the  universally  accepted  phrases,  "  son  of  man,"  "  Son  of 
God  ").  The  contempt  expressed  by  Paul  for  the  "  fables 
and  endless  genealogies  "  of  current  philosophy  and  science 
seems  to  have  been  shared  by  most  of  the  Christian  writers  ; 


The  Symbolism  of  the  Seven  Lett^^s         73 


and  it  is  true  that  ro  form  of  veiling  ignorance  bv  a  show  of 
words  was  ever  invented  more  dangerous  and  m*  re  tempt- 
ing than  the  genealogical.  An  example  of  the  gc.ealogical 
method  may  be  found  in  Addison's  35th  Spectato*^  an  imi- 
tation of  the  old  form,  but  humorous  instead  of  pe'*'*i'iitic. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

AUTHORITY  OF  THE  WRITER  OF  THE  SEVEN  LETTERS. 

In  what  relation  did  the  writer  of  the  Seven  Letters  stand 
to  the  Asian  Churches  which  he  addressed?  This  is  an 
important  question.  The  whole  spirit  of  the  early  develop- 
ment of  law  and  procedure  and  administration  in  the  early 
Church  is  involved  in  the  answer.  That  the  writer  shows 
so  intimate  a  knowledge  of  those  Churches  that  he  must 
have  lived  long  among  them,  will  be  proved  by  a  detailed 
examination  of  the  Seven  Letters,  and  may  for  the  present 
be  assumed.  But  the  question  is  whether  he  addressed  the 
Churches  simply  as  one  who  lived  among  them  and  knew 
their  needs  and  want,  who  was  qualified  by  wisdom  and 
age  and  experience,  and  who  therefore  voluntarily  offered 
advice  and  warning,  which  had  its  justification  in  its  excel- 
lence and  truth  ;  or  whether  he  wrote  as  one  standing  in 
something  like  an  offic  al  and  authoritative  relation  to  them, 
charged  with  the  duty  of  guiding,  correcting  and  advising 
those  Asian  Churches,  feeling  himself  directly  responsible 
for  their  good  conduct  and  welfare. 

The  question  also  arises  whether  he  was  merely  a  prophet 
according  to  the  old  conception  of  the  prophetic  mission, 
coming,  as  it  were,  forth  from  the  desert  or  the  field  to 
deliver  the  message  which  was  dictated  to  him  by  God, 
and  on  which  his  own  personality  and  character  and  know- 
ledge exercised   no   formative  influence ;   or   whether  the 

(74) 


Authority  of  the   Writer  of  the  Seven  Letters     75 

message  is  full  of  his  own  nature,  but  his  nature  raised  to 
its  highest  possible  level  through  that  sympathy  and  com- 
munion with  the  Divine  will,  which  constitutes,  in  the  truest 
and  fullest  sense,  "inspiration  ".  The  first  of  these  alterna- 
tives we  state  only  to  dismiss  it  as  bearing  its  inadequacy 
plainly  written  on  its  face.  The  second  alone  can  satisfy 
us  ;  and  we  study  the  Seven  Letters  on  the  theory  that 
they  are  as  truly  and  completely  indicative  of  the  writer's 
character  and  of  his  personal  relation  to  his  correspondents 
as  nny  letters  of  the  humblest  person  can  be. 

Probably  the  most  striking  feature  of  the  Seven  Letters 
is  the  tone  of  unhesitating  and  unlimited  authority  which 
inspires  them  from  beginning  to  end.  The  best  way  to 
realise  this  tone  and  all  that  it  means  is  to  compare  them 
with  other  early  Christian  letters  :  this  will  show  by  con- 
trast how  supremely  authoritative  is  the  tone  of  the  Seven 
Letters. 

The  letter  of  Clement  to  the  Church  of  Corinth  is  not 
expressed  as  his  own  (though  undoubtedly,  and  by  general 
acknowledgment,  it  is  his  letter,  expressing  his  sentiments 
regarding  the  Corinthians),  but  as  the  letter  of  the  Roman 
Church.  All  assumption  or  appearance  of  personal  author- 
ity is  carefull}^  avoided.  The  warning  and  advice  are  ad- 
dressed by  the  Romans  as  authors,  not  to  the  Corinthians 
only,  but  equally  to  the  Romans  themselves.  "  These 
things  we  write,  not  merely  as  admonishing  you,  but  also 
as  reminding  ourselves,"  §  j}  The  first  person  plural  is 
very  often  used  in  giving  advice :  **  let  us  set  before  our- 
selves the  noble  examples,"  §  5  ;  and  so  on  in  many 
other  cases.  Rebuke,  on  the  other  hand,  is  often  expressed 
in  general  terms.  Thus,  e.g.,  a  long  panegyric  on  the  Co- 
rinthians  in  §  2  :  "  Ye  had  conflict  day  and  night  for  all 


"jd  VII.  Authority  of 

the  brotherhood.  .  .  .  Ye  were  sincere  and  simple  and  free 
from  malice  one  towards  another.  Every  sedition  and 
every  schism  was  abominable  to  you,  etc.,"  is  concluded  in 
§  3  with  a  rebuke  and  admonition  couched  in  far  less 
direct  terms:  "that  which  is  written  was  fulfilled  ;  my  be- 
loved ate  and  drank,  and  was  enlarged  and  waxed  fat  and 
kicked  ;  hence  come  jealousy  and  envy,  strife  and  sedition, 
etc.".  The  panegyric  is  expressed  in  the  second  person 
plural,  but  the  blame  at  the  end  is  in  this  general  imper- 
sonal form. 

A  good  example  of  this  way  of  expressing  blame  in 
perfectly  general,  yet  quite  unmistakable,  terms  is  found 
in  §  44.  Here  the  Corinthians  are  blamed  for  having  de- 
posed certain  bishops  or  presbyters ;  but  the  second  per- 
sonal form  is  never  used.  "  Those  who  M'ere  duly  appointed 
.  .  .  these  men  we  consider  to  be  unjustly  thrust  out  from 
their  ministration.  For  it  will  be  no  light  sin  for  us  if  we 
thrust  out  those  who  have  offered  the  gifts  of  the  bishop's 
office  unblamably  and  holily."  It  would  be  impossible  to 
express  criticism  of  the  conduct  of  others  in  more  courteous 
and  modest  form,  and  yet  it  is  all  the  more  effective  on  that 
account :  "  if  we  do  this,  we  shall  incur  grievous  sin  ". 

The  most  strongly  and  directly  expressed  censure  is  found 
in  §  47.  It  is  entirely  in  the  second  person  plural ;  but 
here  the  Romans  shelter  themselves  behind  the  authority 
of  Paul,  who  "  charged  you  in  the  Spirit  .  .  .  because  even 
then  ye  had  made  parties".  On  this  authority  the  direct 
address  continues  to  the  end  of  the  chapter :  "  it  is  shameful, 
dearly  beloved,  yes,  utterly  shameful  and  unworthy  of  your 
conduct  in  Christ,  thnt  it  should  be  reported  that  the  very 
steadfast  and  ancient  Church  of  the  Corinthians,  for  the  sake 
of  one  or  two  persons,  maketh  sedition  against  its  presbyters, 


The   Writer  of  the  Seven  Letters  77 

etc. ".  But  the  next  sentence  resumes  the  modest  form : 
"  let  us  therefore  root  this  out  quickly  ". 

An  example  equally  good  is  found  in  the  letters  of 
Ignatius ;  and  this  example  is  even  more  instructive  than 
that  of  Clement,  because  Ignatius's  letters  were  addressed 
to  several  of  the  Seven  Churches  not  many  years  after  the 
Revelation  was  written.  Here  we  have  letters  written  by 
the  Bishop  of  Antioch,  the  mother  Church  of  all  the  Asian 
Churches,  and  by  him  when  raised  through  the  near  ap- 
proach of  death  to  a  plane  higher  than  mere  humanity. 
He  was  already  marked  out  for  death — in  the  estimation 
of  Christians  the  most  honourable  kind  of  death — as  the 
representative  of  his  Church ;  and  he  was  on  his  way  to 
the  place  of  execution.  He  was  eager  to  gain  the  crown 
of  life.  He  had  done  with  all  thought  of  earth.  If  there 
was  any  one  who  could  speak  authoritatively  to  the  Asian 
Churches,  it  was  their  Syrian  mother  through  this  chosen 
representative.  But  there  is  not,  in  any  of  his'  letters, 
anything  approaching,  even  in  the  remotest  degree,  to  the 
authoritative  tone  of  John's  letters  to  the  Seven  Churches, 
or  of  Paul's  letters,  or  of  Peter's  letter  to  the  Churches  of 
Anatolia. 

The  Ephesians  especially  are  addressed  by  Ignatius  with 
profound  respect.  He  ought  to  "be  trained  by  them  for 
the  contest  in  faith,"  §  3.  He  hopes  to  "  be  found  in  the 
company  of  the  Christians  of  Ephesus,"  §  11.  He  is 
"devoted  to  them  and  their  representatives,"  §  21.  He 
apologises  for  seeming  to  offer  advice  to  them,  who  should 
be  his  teachers ;  but  they  may  be  schoolfellows  together 
— a  touch  which  recalls  the  tone  of  Clement's  letter ;  he 
does  not  give  orders  to  them,  as  though  he  were  of  some 
consequence,   §   3.      The  tone  throughout  is  that  of  one 


78  VII.  Atithority  of 

who  feels  deeply  that  he  is  honoured  in  associating  with 
the  Ephesian  Church  through  its  envoys. 

There  is  not  the  same  tone  of  extreme  respect  in  Igna- 
tius's  letters  to  Magnesia,  Tralleis,  Philadelphia,  and  Smyrna, 
as  in  his  letter  to  Ephesus.  It  is  apparent  that  the  Syrian 
bishop  regarded  Ephesus  as  occupying  a  position  of  loftier 
dignity  than  the  other  Churches  of  the  Province ;  and  this 
is  an  important  fact  in  itself  It  proves  that  already  there 
was  the  beginning  of  a  feeling,  in  some  minds  at  least,  that 
the  Church  of  the  leading  city  of  a  Province  ^  was  of  higher 
dignity  than  those  of  the  other  cities,  a  feeling  which  ulti- 
mately grew  into  the  recognition  of  metropolitan  bishoprics 
and  exarchates,  and  a  fully  formed  and  graded  hierarchy. 

But  even  to  those  Churches  of  less  splendid  history,  his 
tone  is  not  that  of  authority.  It  is  true  that  he  sometimes 
uses  the  imperative  ;  but  in  the  more  simple  language  of 
the  Eastern  peoples,  as  in  modern  Greek  and  Turkish  (at 
least  in  the  conversational  style),  the  imperative  mood  is 
often  used,  without  any  idea  of  command,  by  an  inferior 
to  a  superior,  or  by  equal  to  equal ;  and  in  such  cases 
it  expresses  no  more  than  extreme  urgency.  In  Magn.  § 
3  the  tone  is  one  of  urgent  reasoning,  and  Lightfoot  in 
his  commentary  rightly  paraphrases  the  imperative  of  the 
Greek  by  the  phrase  "  I  exhort  you".  In  §  6  the  impera- 
tive is  represented  in  Lightfoot's  translation  by  "  I  advise 
you".  In  §  lo  the  advice  is  expressed  in  the  first  person 
plural  (a  form  which  we  found  to  be  characteristic  of 
Clement),  "  let  us  learn  to  live,"  "  let  us  not  be  insensible 
to  His  goodness".  Then  follows  in  §  ii  an  apology  for 
even  advising  his  correspondents,  "  not  because  I  have 
learned  that  any  of  you  are  so  minded,  but  as  one  inferior 
to  you,   I  would   have  you  be  on  your  guard  betimes ". 


The   Writer  of  the  Seven  Letters  79 

When  in  Trail.  §  3  he  is  tempted  to  use  the  language  of 
reproof,  he  refrains :  "  I  did  not  think  myself  competent 
for  this,  that  being  a  convict  I  should  give  orders  to  you  as 
though  I  were  an  Apostle  ".^ 

It  is  needless  to  multiply  examples.  The  tone  of  the 
letters  is  the  same  throughout.  Ignatius  has  not  the  right, 
like  Paul  or  Peter  or  an  Apostle,  to  issue  commands  to  the 
Asian  Churches.  He  can  only  advise,  and  exhort,  and 
reason — in  the  most  urgent  terms,  but  as  an  equal  to 
equals,  as  man  to  men,  or,  as  he  modestly  puts  it,  as  inferior 
to  superiors.  He  has  just  the  same  right  and  duty  that 
every  Christian  has  of  interesting  himself  in  the  life  of  all 
other  Christians,  of  advising  and  admonishing  and  entreat- 
ing them  to  take  the  course  which  he  knows  to  be  right. 

The  best  expression  of  his  attitude  towards  his  corre- 
spondents is  contained  in  a  sentence  which  he  addresses 
to  the  Romans,  §  9,  in  which  he  contrasts  his  relation  to 
them  with  the  authority  that  belonged  to  the  Apostles : 
"  I  do  not  give  orders  to  you,  as  Peter  and  Paul  did  :  they 
were  Apostles,  I  am  a  convict :  they  were  free,  but  I  am  a 
slave  to  this  very  hour  ".^ 

But  John  writes  in  an  utterly  different  spirit,  with  the 
tone  of  absolute  authority.  He  carries  this  tone  to  an 
extreme  far  beyond  that  even  of  the  other  Apostles,  Paul 
and  Peter,  in  writing  to  the  Asian  Churches.  Paul  writes 
as  their  father  and  teacher :  authority  is  stamped  on  every 
sentence  of  his  letters.  Peter  reviews  their  circumstances 
points  out  the  proper  line  of  conduct  in  various  situations 
and  relations,  addresses  them  in  classes — the  officials  and 
the  general  congregation — in  a  tone  of  authority  and  re- 
sponsibility throughout :  he  writes  because  he  feels  bound 
to  prepare  them  in  view  of  coming  trials. 


8o  VII.  Authority  of 

St.  John  expresses  the  Divine  voice  with  absolute  author- 
ity of  spiritual  life  and  death  in  the  present  and  the  future. 
Such  a  tone  cannot  be,  and  probably  hardly  ever  has  been, 
certainly  is  not  now  by  any  scholar,  regarded  as  the  result 
of  mere  assumption  and  pretence.  Who  can  imagine  as 
a  possibility  of  human  nature  that  one  who  can  think  the 
thoughts  expressed  in  these  letters  could  pretend  to  such 
authority  either  as  a  fanciful  dreamer  deluding  himself  or 
as  an  actual  impostor  ?  Such  suggestions  would  be  unreal 
and  inconceivable. 

It  is  a  psychological  impossibility  that  these  Letters  to 
the  Asian  Churches  could  have  been  written  except  by 
one  who  felt  himself,  and  had  the  right  to  feel  himself, 
charged  with  the  superintendence  and  oversight  of  all  those 
Churches,  invested  with  Divinely  given  and  absolute  au- 
thority over  them,  gifted  by  long  knowledge  and  sympathy 
with  insight  unto  their  nature  and  circumstances,  able 
to  understand  the  line  on  which  each  was  developing,  and 
finally  bringing  to  a  focus  in  one  moment  of  supreme 
inspiration — whose  manner  none  but  himself  could  under- 
stand or  imagine — all  the  powers  he  possessed  of  know- 
ledge, of  intellect,  of  intensest  love,  of  gravest  responsibility 
of  sympathy  with  the  Divine  life,  of  commission  from  his 
Divine  Teacher. 

Moreover,  when  we  consider  how  sternly  St.  Paul  de- 
nounced and  resented  any  interference  from  any  quarter, 
however  influential,  with  the  conduct  of  his  Churches,  and 
how  carefully  he  explained  and  apologised  for  his  own  in- 
tention of  visiting  Rome,  that  he  might  not  seem  to  "  build 
on  another's  foundation,"*  and  again  when  we  take  into 
consideration  the  constructive  capacity  of  the  early  Church 
and  all  that  is  implied  therein,  we  must  conclude  that  St. 


The   Writer  of  the  Seven  Letters  8i 

John's  authority  was  necessarily  connected  with  his  publicly 
recognised  position  as  the  head  of  those  Asian  Churches, 
and  did  not  arise  merely  from  his  general  commission  as  an 
Apostle. 

In  a  word,  we  must  recognise  the  authoritative  succession 
in  the  Asian  Churches  of  those  three  writers :  first  and 
earliest  him  who  speaks  in  the  Pauline  letters ;  secondly, 
him  who  wrote  "  to  the  Elect  who  are  sojourners  of  the 
Dispersion  in  .  .  .  Asia "  and  the  other  Provinces  ;  lastly, 
the  author  of  the  Seven  Letters. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  EDUCATION   OF  ST.  JOHN  IN  PATMOS. 

Closely  related  to  this  authority  claimed  and  exercised 
by  the  writer  of  the  Apocalypse  over  the  Church — so  closely 
related  that  it  is  merely  another  aspect  of  that  authority — 
is  the  claim  which  he  makes  to  speak  in  the  name  of  Christ. 
He  writes  in  a  book  what  he  has  seen  and  heard.  The 
words  of  the  letter  are  given  him  to  set  down.  It  is  the 
Divine  Head  of  the  Church  Himself,  from  whom  all  the 
letters  and  the  book  as  a  whole  originate.  The  writer  is 
distinguished  from  the  Author  ;  though  the  distinction  is 
not  to  be  regarded  as  carried  through  the  book  with  un- 
broken regularity,  and  must  not  be  pressed  too  closely. 
The  one  'dea  melts  into  the  other  with  that  elusive  in- 
definiteness  which  characterises  the  book  as  a  whole. 

On  his  credentials  as  a  legate  or  messenger  is  founded 
the  authority  which  the  writer  exercises  over  the  Church. 
Over  the  Church  God  alone  has  authority ;  and  no  man  may 
demand  its  obedience  except  in  so  far  as  he  has  been 
directly  commissioned  by  God  to  speak.  Only  the  mes- 
senger of  God  has  any  right  to  obedience :  other  men  can 
only  offer  advice. 

Let  us  try  to  understand  this  attitude  and  this  claim  by 
first  of  all  understanding  more  clearly  the  situation  in 
which  the  writer  was  placed,  and  the  circumstances  in 
which  the  work  originated.      Only  in   that  way  can   the 


The  Education  of  St.  John  in  Patmos       %2> 

problem  be  fairly  approached.  It  may  prove  insoluble. 
In  a  sense  it  must  prove  insoluble.  At  the  best  we  cannot 
hope  to  do  more  than  state  the  conditions  and  the  diffi- 
culties clearly  in  a  form  suited  to  the  mind  and  thoughts 
of  our  own  time.  But  a  clear  understanding  of  the  diffi- 
culties involved  is  a  step  towards  the  solution.  The  solution 
however  must  be  reached  by  every  one  for  himself:  it  is  a 
matter  for  the  individual  mind,  and  depends  on  the  degree 
to  which  the  individual  can  even  in  a  dim  vague  way  com- 
prehend the  mind  of  St.  John.  It  involves  the  personal 
element,  personal  experience  and  personal  opinion  ;  and  he 
who  tries  to  express  the  solution  is  exposed  to  subjectivity 
and  error.     The  solution  is  to  be  lived  rather  than  spoken. 

St.  John  had  been  banished  to  Patmos,  an  unimportant 
islet,  whose  condition  in  ancient  times  is  little  known. 
In  the  Imperial  period  banishment  to  one  of  the  small 
rocky  islands  of  the  ^gean  was  a  common  and  recognised 
penalty,  corresponding  in  some  respects  (though  only  in  a 
very  rough  way  and  with  many  serious  differences)  to  the 
former  English  punishment  of  transportation.  It  carried 
with  it  entire  loss  of  civil  rights  and  almost  entire  loss  of 
property  ;  usually  a  small  allowance  was  reserved  to  sustain 
the  exile's  life.  The  penalty  was  life-long ;  it  ended  only 
with  death.  The  exile  was  allowed  to  live  in  free  inter- 
course with  the  people  of  the  island,  and  to  earn  money. 
But  he  could  not  inherit  money  nor  bequeath  his  own,  if 
he  saved  or  earned  any :  all  that  he  had  passed  to  the 
State  at  his  death.  He  was  cut  off  from  the  outer  world, 
though  he  was  not  treated  with  personal  cruelty  or  con- 
straint within  the  limits  of  the  islet,  where  he  was  confined.* 

But  there  are  serious  difficulties  forbidding  the  supposi- 
tion that  St  Joh  1  was  banished  to  Patmos  in  this  way. 


84  VIII.    The  Education  of 

In  the  first  place  this  punishment  was  reserved  for  persons 
of  good  standing  and  some  wealth.  Now  it  seems  utterly 
impossible  to  admit  that  St.  John  could  have  belonged  to 
that  class.  In  Ephesus  he  was  an  obscure  stranger  of 
Jewish  origin  ;  and  under  the  Flavian  Emperors  the  Jews 
of  Palestine  were  specially  open  to  suspicion  on  account 
of  the  recent  rebellion.  There  is  no  evidence,  and  no  prob- 
ability, that  he  possessed  either  the  birth,  or  the  property, 
or  the  civic  rights,  entitling  him  to  be  treated  on  this  more 
favoured  footing.  He  was  one  of  the  common  people, 
whose  punishment  was  more  summary  and  far  harsher 
than  simple  banishment  to  an  island. 

In  the  second  place,  even  if  he  had  been  of  sufficiently 
high  standing  for  that  form  of  punishment,  it  is  impossible 
to  suppose  that  the  crime  of  Christianity  could  have  been 
punished  so  leniently  at  that  period.  If  it  was  a  crime 
at  all,  it  belonged  to  a  very  serious  class ;  and  milder 
treatment  is  unknown  as  a  punishment  for  it,^  In  its 
first  stages,  before  it  was  regarded  as  a  crime,  some  Chris- 
tians were  subjected  to  comparatively  mild  penalties,  like 
scourging ;  but  in  such  cases  they  were  punished,  not  for 
the  crime  of  Christianity,  not  for  "  the  name,"  but  for  other 
offences,  such  as  causing  disorder  in  the  streets.  But  St. 
John  was  in  Patmos  for  the  word  of  God  and  the  testimony 
of  fesus,  partaker  with  you  in  the  tribulation  and  kingdom 
and  patience  which  are  in  fesus.  His  punishment  took  place 
at  a  time  when  the  penalty  for  Christianity  was  already 
fixed  as  death  in  the  severer  form  {i.e.  fire,  crucifixion,  or 
as  a  public  spectacle  at  games  and  festivals)  for  persons 
of  humbler  position  and  provincials,  and  simple  execution 
for  Roman  citizens.  Nor  is  it  possible  to  suppose  that  St. 
John  was  banished  at  an  early  stage  in  the  persecution, 


S^.  John  in  Patmos  85 

before  the  procedure  was  fully  comprehended  and  strictly 
carried  out.  The  tradition  that  connects  his  punishment 
with  Domitian  is  too  strong. 

The  conclusion  seems  inevitable :  St.  John  was  not  pun- 
ished with  the  recognised  Roman  penalty  of  banishment 
to  an  island  {deportatio  in  insulani) :  the  exile  to  Patmos 
must  have  been  some  kind  of  punishment  of  a  more  serious 
character. 

There  was  such  a  penalty.  Banishment  combined  with 
hard  labour  for  life  was  one  of  the  grave  penalties.  Many 
Christians  were  punished  in  that  way.  It  was  a  penalty 
for  humbler  criminals,  provincials  and  slaves.  It  was  in  its 
worst  forms  a  terrible  fate :  like  the  death  penalty  it  was 
preceded  by  scourging,  and  it  was  marked  by  perpetual 
fetters,  scanty  clothing,  insufficient  food,  sleep  on  the  bare 
ground  in  a  dark  prison,  and  work  under  the  lash  of  military 
overseers.^  It  is  an  unavoidable  conclusion  that  this  was 
St.  John's  punishment.  Patmos  is  not  elsewhere  mentioned 
as  one  of  the  places  where  convicts  of  this  class  were  sent ; 
but  we  know  very  little  about  the  details  and  places  of  this 
penalty  ;  and  the  case  of  St.  John  is  sufficient  proof  that  such 
criminals  were  in  some  cases  sent  there.  There  were  no 
mines  in  Patmos.  Whether  any  quarries  were  worked  there 
might  be  determined  by  careful  exploration  of  the  islet. 
Here,  as  everywhere  in  the  New  Testament,  one  is  met  by 
the  difficulty  of  insufficient  knowledge.  In  many  cases  it 
is  impossible  to  speak  confidently,  where  a  little  explora- 
tion by  a  competent  traveller  would  probably  give  cei  tainty. 

Undoubtedly,  there  were  many  forms  of  hard  labour 
under  the  Roman  rule,  and  these  varied  in  degree,  some 
being  worse  than  others.  We  might  wish  to  think  that  in 
his  exile  St.  John  had  a  mild  type  of  punishment  to  under- 


86  VIII.    The  Education  of 

go,  which  permitted  more  leisure  and  more  ease  ;  but  would 
any  milder  penalty  be  suitable  to  the  language  of  i.  9, 
your  brother  and  partaker  with  you  in  the  tribulation?  It 
is  possible  perhaps  to  explain  those  words  as  used  by  an 
exile,  though  subjected  only  to  the  milder  penalty  inflicted 
on  persons  of  rank.  But  how  much  more  meaning  and 
effect  they  carry,  when  the  penalties  of  both  parties  are  of 
the  same  severe  character.  Now  it  is  a  safe  rule  to  follow, 
that  the  language  of  the  New  Testament  is  rarely,  if  ever, 
to  be  estimated  on  the  lower  scale  of  effectiveness.  The  in- 
terpretation which  gives  most  power  and  meaning  is  the 
right  one.  St.  John  wrote  to  the  Churches  in  those  words 
of  i.  9,  because  he  was  suffering  in  the  same  degree  as 
themselves. 

Banished  to  Patmos,  St.  John  was  dead  to  the  world  ; 
he  could  not  learn  much  about  what  was  going  on  in  the 
Empire  and  in  the  Province  Asia.  It  would  be  difficult 
for  him  to  write  his  Vision  in  a  book,  and  still  more  difficult 
to  send  it  to  the  Churches  when  it  was  written.  He  could 
exercise  no  charge  of  his  Churches.  He  could  only  think 
about  them,  and  see  in  the  heavens  the  process  of  their 
fate.  He  stood  on  the  sand  of  the  seashore,  and  saw  the 
Beast  rise  from  the  sea  and  come  to  the  land  of  Asia ;  and 
he  saw  the  battle  waged  and  the  victory  won.  Just  as  the 
Roman  supreme  magistrate  or  general  was  competent  to 
read  in  the  sky  the  signs  of  the  Divine  will  regarding  the 
city  or  the  army  entrusted  to  his  charge,  so  St.  John  could 
read  in  the  heavens  the  intimation  of  the  fortunes  and  the 
history  of  his  Churches. 

In  passing,  a  remark  on  the  text  must  be  made  here. 
It  is  unfortunate  that  the  Revisers  departed  from  the  read- 
ing of  the  Authorised  Version  in  xiii.  i  ;  and  attached  the 


5"/.  John  in  Patmos  87 

first  words  to  the  preceding  chapter,  understanding  that 
the  Dragon  "  stood  upon  the  sand  of  the  sea ".  Thus  a 
meaningless  and  unsuitable  amplification  —  for  where  is 
the  point  in  saying  that  the  Dragon  waxed  wroth  with  the 
Woman,  and  went  away  to  war  with  the  rest  of  her  seed; 
and  he  stood  upon  the  sand  of  the  sea  ?  the  history  breaks 
off  properly  with  his  going  away  to  war  against  the  saints 
(the  conclusion  of  that  war  being  related  in  xix.  19-21), 
whereas  it  halts  and  comes  to  a  feeble  stop,  when  he  is  left 
standing  on  the  sea-shore  —  was  substituted  for  the  bold 
and  effective  personal  detail,  /  stood  upon  the  sand  of  the 
shore  of  Patmos,  and  saw  a  Beast  rise  out  of  the  sea. 

St.  John  could  see  all  this ;  and  through  years  of  exile, 
with  rare  opportunities  of  hearing  what  happened  to  his 
Churches,  he  could  remain  calm,  free  from  apprehension, 
confident  in  their  steadfastness  on  the  whole  and  their 
inevitable  victory  over  the  enemy.  In  that  lonely  time  the 
thoughts  and  habits  of  his  youth  came  back  to  him,  while 
his  recently  acquired  Hellenist  habits  were  weakened  in  the 
want  of  the  nourishment  supplied  by  constant  intercourse 
with  Hellenes  and  Hellenists.  His  Hellenic  development 
ceased  for  the  time.  The  head  of  the  Hellenic  Churches  of 
Asia  was  transformed  into  the  Hebrew  seer.  Nothing  but 
the  Oriental  power  of  separating  oneself  from  the  world 
and  immersing  oneself  in  the  Divine  could  stand  the  strain 
of  that  long  vigil  on  the  shore  of  Patmos.  Nothing  but  a 
Vision  was  possible  for  him  ;  and  the  Vision,  full  of  Hebraic 
imagery  and  the  traces  of  late  Hebrew  literature  which  all 
can  see,  yet  also  often  penetrated  with  a  Hellenist  and 
Hellenic  spirit  so  subtle  and  delicate  that  {qw  can  appreciate 
it,  was  slowly  written  down,  and  took  form  as  the  Revela- 
tion of  St.  John. 


88  VIII.    The  Education  of 

Most  men  succumb  to  such  surroundings,  and  either  die 
or  lose  all  human  nature  and  sink  to  the  level  of  the 
beasts.  A  few  can  live  through  it,  sustained  by  the  hope 
of  escape  and  return  to  the  world.  But  St.  John  rose  above 
that  life  of  toil  and  hopeless  misery,  because  he  lived  in  the 
Divine  nature  and  had  lost  all  thought  of  the  facts  of  earth. 
In  that  living  death  he  found  his  true  life,  like  many  another 
martyr  of  Christ.  Who  shall  tell  how  far  a  man  may  rise 
above  earth,  when  he  can  rise  superior  to  an  environment 
like  that  ?  Who  will  set  bounds  to  the  growth  of  the  human 
soul,  when  it  is  separated  from  all  worldly  relations  and 
trammels,  feeding  on  its  own  thoughts  and  the  Divine 
nature,  and  yet  is  filled  not  with  anxiety  about  its  poor 
self,  but  with  care,  love  and  sympathy  for  those  who  have 
been  constituted  its  charge? 

When  he  was  thus  separated  from  communication  with 
his  Churches,  St.  John  was  already  dead  in  some  sense  to 
the  world.  The  Apocalypse  was  to  be,  as  it  were,  his  last 
testament,  transmitted  to  the  Asian  Churches  from  his 
seclusion  when  opportunity  served,  like  a  voice  coming  to 
them  from  the  other  world. 

Those  who  can  with  sure  and  easy  hand  mark  out  the 
limits  beyond  which  the  soul  of  man  can  never  go,  will 
be  able  to  determine  to  their  own  satisfaction  how  far  St, 
John  was  mistaken,  when  he  thought  he  heard  the  Divine 
voice  and  listened  to  a  message  transmitted  through  him 
to  the  Churches  and  to  the  Church  as  a  whole.  But  those 
who  have  not  gauged  so  accurately  and  narrowly  the  range 
of  the  human  soul  will  not  attempt  the  task.  They  will 
recognise  that  there  is  in  these  letters  a  tone  and  a  power 
above  the  mere  human  level,  and  will  confess  that  the 
ordinary  man  is  unable  to  keep  pace  with  the  movement 


S^.  John  in  Patmos  89 

of  this  writer.  It  is  admitted  that  the  letters  reveal  to  us 
the  character  and  the  experiences  of  the  writer,  and  that 
they  spring  out  of  his  own  nature.  But  what  was  his 
nature  ?  How  far  can  man  rise  above  the  human  level  ? 
How  far  can  man  understand  the  will  and  judgment  of 
God  ?  We  lesser  men  who  have  not  the  omniscient  con- 
fidence of  the  critical  pedant,  do  not  presume  to  fix  the 
limits  beyond  which  St.  John  could  not  go. 

But  we  know  that  from  the  Apocalypse  we  have  this  gain, 
at  least.  Through  the  study  of  it  we  are  able  in  a  vague 
and  dim  way  to  understand  how  that  long  drawn-out  living 
death  in  Patmos  was  the  necessary  training  through  which 
he  must  pass  who  should  write  the  Fourth  Gospel,  In 
no  other  way  could  man  rise  to  that  superhuman  level,  on 
which  the  Fourth  Gospel  is  pitched,  and  be  able  to  gaze 
with  steady  unwavering  eyes  on  the  eternal  and  the  Divine 
and  to  remain  so  unconscious  of  the  ephemeral  world. 
And  they  who  strive  really  to  understand  the  education 
of  Patmos  will  be  able  to  understand  the  strangest  and 
most  apparently  incredible  fact  about  the  New  Testament, 
how  the  John  who  is  set  before  us  in  the  Synoptic  Gospels 
could  ever  write  the  Fourth  Gospel. 

The  Revelation,  which  was  composed  in  the  circum- 
stances above  described,  must  have  been  slow  in  taking 
form.  It  was  not  the  vision  of  a  day ;  it  embodied  the 
contemplation  aod  the  insight  of  years.  But  its  point  of 
view  is  the  moment  when  the  Apostle  was  snatched  from 
the  world  and  sent  into  banishment.  After  that  he  knew 
nothing ;  his  living  entombment  began  then ;  and  if  the 
Revelation  is  quoted  as  an  historical  authority  about  the 
Province,  its  evidence  applies  only  to  the  period  which  he 
knew. 


90  VIII.    The  Education  of 

At  last  there  came  the  assassination  of  the  tyrant,  the 
annulling  of  all  his  acts,  and  the  strong  reaction  against 
his  whole  policy.  The  Christians  profited  by  this.  The 
persecution,  though  not  first  instituted  by  him,  was  closely 
connected  with  his  name  and  his  ideas,  and  was  discredited 
and  made  unpopular  by  the  association.  For  a  time  it  was 
in  abeyance. 

In  particular,  the  exile  pronounced  against  St.  John 
was  apparently  an  act  of  the  Emperor,  and  ceased  to  be 
valid  when  his  acts  were  declared  invalid.  The  Apostle 
was  now  free  to  return  to  Asia.  He  may  have  brought 
the  Apocalypse  with  him.  More  probably  an  opportunity 
had  been  found  of  sending  it  already.  But  it  reached  the 
Churches,  and  began  to  be  effective  among  them,  in  the 
latter  part  of  Domitian's  reign ;  and  hence  Irenaeus  says 
it  was  written  at  that  time.  But  while  his  account  is  to  be 
regarded  as  literally  true,  yet  the  composition  was  long  and 
slow,  and  the  point  of  view  is  placed  at  the  beginning  of 
the  exile. 

There  grew  up  later  the  belief  that  his  exile  had  only 
been  short ;  and  that  he  was  banished  about  two  years 
before  the  end  of  Domitian's  reign.  But  this  seems  to  rest 
on  no  early  or  good  evidence  :  all  that  can  be  reckoned  as 
reasonably  certain  (so  far  as  certainty  can  be  predicated 
of  a  time  so  remote  and  so  obscure)  is  that  St.  John 
was  banished  to  Patmos  and  returned  .at  the  death  of 
Domitian. 

Antoninus  Pius  (138-161),  indeed,  laid  down  the  rule 
that  criminals  might  be  released  from  this  penalty  after 
ten  years  on  account  of  ill-health  or  old  age,  if  relatives 
took  charge  of  them.  But  this  amelioration  cannot  be 
supposed  to  have  been  allowed  in  the  Flavian  time  for  an 


5/.  John  in  Patmos  91 

obscure  Christian.  No  other  end  for  the  punishment  of 
St.  John  seems  possible  except  the  fall  of  Domitian  ;  and 
in  that  case  he  must  have  been  exiled  by  Domitian,  for  if 
he  had  been  condemned  by  another  Emperor,  his  fate  would 
not  have  been  affected  by  the  annulment  of  Domitian's 
acts. 

There  arose  also  in  that  later  time  a  misconception  as  to 
the  character  of  the  Flavian  persecution.  It  was  regarded 
as  an  act  of  Domitian  alone,  and  was  supposed  to  be,  like 
all  the  other  persecutions  except  the  last,  a  brief  but  intense 
outburst  of  cruelty :  this  misconception  took  form  before 
the  last  persecution,  and  was  determined  by  the  analogy 
of  all  the  others. 

But  the  Flavian  persecution  was  not  a  temporary  flaming 
forth  of  cruelty :  it  was  a  steady,  uniform  application  of 
a  deliberately  chosen  and  unvarying  policy,  a  policy  arrived 
at  after  careful  consideration,  and  settled  for  the  permanent 
future  conduct  of  the  entire  administration.  It  was  to  be 
independent  of  circumstances  and  the  inclination  of  indi- 
viduals. The  Christians  were  to  be  annihilated,  as  the 
Druids  had  been ;  and  both  those  instances  of  intolerance 
were  due  to  the  same  cause,  not  religious  but  political,  viz.^ 
the  belief  that  each  of  them  endangered  the  unity  of  the 
Empire  and  the  safety  of  the  Imperial  rule.  Domitian  was 
not  a  mere  capricious  tyrant.  He  was  an  able,  but  gloomy 
and  suspicious,  ruler.  He  applied  with  ruthless  logic  the 
principle  which  had  apparently  been  laid  down  by  his 
father  Vespasian,  and  which  was  confirmed  a  few  years  later 
by  Trajan.  But  the  more  genial  character  of  Vespasian 
interfered  in  practice  with  the  thorough  execution  of  the 
principle  which  he  had  laid  down  ;  and  the  clear  insight 
of  Trajan  recognised  that  in  carrying  it  out  methods  were 


92     VIII.   The  Education  of  St.  John  in  Patmos 

required  which  would  be  inconsistent  with  the  humaner 
spirit  of  his  age,  and  he  forbade  those  excesses,  while  he 
approved  the  principle.  But  the  intellect  of  Domitian  per- 
ceived that  the  proscription  of  the  Christians  was  simply 
the  application  of  the  essential  principles  of  Roman  Im- 
perialism, and  no  geniality  or  humanity  prevented  him  from 
putting  it  logically  and  thoroughly  into  execution.  His 
ability,  his  power  to  grasp  general  principles,  and  his 
narrow  intensity  of  nature  in  putting  his  principles  into 
action,  may  be  gathered  from  his  portrait,  Fig.  5,  taken 
from  one  of  his  coins. 


Fio.  5. — Domitian,  the  persecutor. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  FLAVIAN  PERSECUTION  IN  THE  PROVINCE  OF  ASIA  AS 
DEPICTED  IN  THE  APOCALYPSE. 

The  shadow  of  the  Roman  Empire  broods  over  the  whole 
of  the  Apocalypse.  Not  merely  are  the  Empire  and  the 
Emperors  and  the  Imperial  city  introduced  explicitly  and 
by  more  or  less  clear  descriptions  among  the  figures  that 
bulk  most  largely  in  the  Visions :  an  even  more  important, 
though  less  apparent,  feature  of  the  book  is  that  many 
incidental  expressions  would  be  taken  by  the  Asian  readers 
as  referring  to  the  Empire.  Their  minds  were  filled  with 
the  greatness,  the  majesty,  the  all-powerful  and  irresistible 
character  of  the  Roman  rule  ;  and,  with  this  thought  in  their 
minds,  they  inevitably  interpreted  every  allusion  to  worldly 
dignity  and  might  as  referring  to  Rome,  unless  it  were  at 
the  outset  indicated  by  some  marked  feature  as  not  Roman. 
One  such  exception  is  the  Horseman  of  vi.  i,  who  rides  forth 
accompanied  by  Bloodshed,  Scarcity  and  Death  :  he  is 
marked  by  the  bow  that  he  carries  as  the  Parthian  terror 
(Figs.  I,  3),  which  always  loomed  on  the  eastern  horizon  as 
a  possible  source  of  invasion  with  its  concomitant  trials. 

Those  incidental  allusions  can  be  brought  out  only  by  a 
detailed  study  and  scrutiny  of  the  Apocalypse,  sentence  by 
sentence.  But  it  will  facilitate  the  understanding  of  the 
Seven  Letters  to  notice  here  briefly  the  chief  figures  under 
which   the   power   of  Rome   appears   in   the   Apocalypse. 

(93) 


94  IX.   The  Flavian  Persecution 

Some  of  these  are  quite  correctly  explained  by  most 
modern  commentators ;  but  one  at  least  is  still  rather 
obscure.  Almost  every  interpreter  rightly  explains  the 
Dragon  of  xii.  3  fif.,  the  Beast  of  xiii.  i  ff.,  and  the 
Woman  of  xvii.  3  fif.  ;  but  the  monster  in  xiii.  18  ff.  is 
not  quite  properly  explained,  and  this  is  the  one  that  most 
intimately  concerns  the  purpose  of  the  present  work. 

The  Dragon  of  xii.  i,  the  supreme  power  of  evil,  acts 
through  the  force  of  the  Empire,  when  he  waited  to  devour 
the  child  of  the  Woman  ditvd  persecuted  the  Woman  and  pro- 
ceeded to  make  war  on  the  rest  of  her  seed ;  and  his  heads 
and  his  horns  are  the  Imperial  instruments  by  whom  he 
carries  on  war  and  persecution.  The  Beast  of  xiii.  i,  with 
his  ten  diademed  horns  and  the  blasphemous  names  on 
his  seven  heads,  is  the  Imperial  government  with  its  dia- 
demed Emperors  and  its  temples  dedicated  to  human 
beings  blasphemously  styled  by  Divine  names. 

The  Woman  of  xvii.  i,  sitting  on  a  scarlet-coloured 
beast  with  seven  heads  and  ten  horns  and  names  of  blas- 
phemy, decked  in  splendour  and  lapped  in  luxury  and 
drunk  with  the  blood  of  the  saints  and  the  blood  of  the 
martyrs,  is  the  Imperial  city,  which  attracted  to  her  al- 
lurements and  her  pomp  the  kings  of  the  nations,  the  rich 
and  distinguished  men  from  all  parts  of  the  civilised  world. 
The  term  "kings"  was  commonly  used  in  the  social  speech 
of  that  period  to  indicate  the  wealthy  and  luxurious.  The 
kings  of  the  client-states  in  Asia  Minor  and  Syria,  also, 
visited  Rome  from  time  to  time.  Epiphanes  of  Cilicia 
Tracheia  was  there  in  A.D.  69,  and  took  part  in  the  Civil 
War  on  the  side  of  Otho. 

To  Rome  go  the  saints  and  the  martyrs  to  be  tormented, 
that  the  woman  and  her  guests  may  be  amused  on  festivals 


,/» 


As  depicted  m  the  Apocalypse  95 

and  State  occasions.  She  sits  upon  the  Imperial  monster, 
the  beast  with  its  heads  and  its  horns  and  its  blasphemous 
names  and  its  purple  or  scarlet  hue  (for  the  ancient  names 
of  colours  pass  into  one  another  with  little  distinction),  be- 
cause Rome  had  been  raised  higher  than  ever  before  by  the 
Imperial  government.  Yet  the  same  Beast  and  the  ten 
horns,  by  which  she  is  exalted  so  high,  sJiall  hate  her,  and 
shall  viake  her  desolate  and  naked,  and  shall  eat  her  flesh, 
and  shall  burn  her  utterly  with  fire :  for  the  Emperors  were 
no  true  friends  to  Rome,  they  feared  it,  and  therefore  hated 
it,  curtailed  its  liberties,  deprived  it  of  all  its  power,  mur- 
dered its  citizens  and  all  its  leading  men,  wished  (like 
Caligula)  that  the  whole  Roman  People  had  one  single 
neck,  and  (like  Nero)  burned  the  city  to  the  ground. 

In  a  more  veiled,  and  yet  a  clearly  marked  way  the 
Province  Asia  appears  as  a  figure  in  the  Vision.  It  must 
be  understood,  however,  what  "the  Province"  was  in  the 
Roman  system  and  the  popular  conception.  The  Province 
was  not  a  tract  of  land  subjected  to  Rome :  as  a  definite 
tract  of  the  earth  "  Asia "  originally  had  no  existence 
except  in  the  sense  of  the  whole  vast  continent,  which  is 
still  known  under  that  name.  A  "  Province  "  to  the  Roman 
mind  meant  literally  "  a  sphere  of  duty,"  and  was  an  ad- 
ministrative, not  a  geographical,  fact :  the  Province  of  a 
magistrate  might  be  the  stating  of  law  in  Rome,  or  the 
superintendence  of  a  great  road,  or  the  administration  of 
a  region  or  district  of  the  world  ;  but  it  was  not  and  could 
not  be  (except  in  a  loose  and  derivative  way)  a  tract  of 
country.  From  the  Asian  point  of  view  the  Province  was 
the  aspect  in  which  Rome  manifested  itself  to  the  people 
of  Asia.  Conversely,  the  Province  was  the  form  under 
which  the  people  of  Asia  constituted  a  part  of  the  Empire. 


96  IX.   The  Flavian  Persecution 

Rome  appeared  to  the  Asians  in  a  double  aspect,  and  so 
the  Province  had  a  double  character,  i.e.  two  horns. 

In  the  first  place  the  Province  of  Asia  was  the  entire 
circle  of  administrative  duties  connected  with  that  division 
of  the  Empire,  which  stood  before  the  minds  of  the  people 
of  Asia  (and  among  them  of  the  writer  of  the  Apocalypse) 
as  the  whole  body  of  officials,  who  conducted  the  adminis- 
tration, especially  the  Senate  in  Rome  acting  through  its 
chosen  agent  on  the  spot,  the  individual  Senator  whom  the 
rest  of  the  Senate  delegated  to  represent  it  and  to  ad- 
minister its  power  in  Asia  for  the  period  of  a  year,  residing 
in  official  state  as  Proconsul  in  the  capital  or  making  his 
official  progress  through  the  principal  cities. 

In  the  second  place  the  Province  was  the  whole  circle 
of  religious  duties  and  rites,  which  constituted  the  ideal 
bond  of  unity  holding  the  people  of  Asia  together  as  a 
part  of  the  Imperial  realm  ;  and  this  ritual  was  expressed 
to  the  Asian  mind  by  the  representative  priests,  constitut- 
ing the  Commune  (or,  as  it  might  almost  be  called,  the 
Parliament)  of  Asia :  the  one  representative  body  that 
spoke  for  the  "  Nation,"  i.e.  the  Province,  Asia. 

Again,  the  Province  meant  the  status  which  a  certain 
body  of  persons  and  cities  occupied  in  the  Roman  Empire. 
They  possessed  certain  privileges  in  the  Empire,  in  virtue 
of  being  provincials,  and  their  rights  and  duties  were  deter- 
mined by  "  the  Law  of  the  Province,"  which  was  drawn  up 
to  regulate  the  admission  of  the  Province  in  the  Empire. 
Thus,  e.g.,  a  Phrygian  occupied  a  place  in  the  Empire,  not 
as  a  Phrygian,  but  as  an  Asian  or  a  Galatian  (according  as 
he  belonged  to  the  Asian  or  the  Galatian  part  of  Phrygia). 
A  Phrygian  was  a  member  of  a  foreign  conquered  race. 
An  Asian  or  a  Galatian  was  a  unit  in  the  Empire,  with 


As  depicted  in  the  Apocalypse  97 

less  privileges  indeed  than  a  Roman  Citizen,  but  still 
honoured  with  certain  rights  and  duties.  These  rights 
and  duties  were  partly  civil  and  partly  religious :  as  an 
Asian,  he  must  both  act  and  feel  as  part  of  the  Empire — 
he  must  do  certain  duties  and  feel  certain  emotions  of 
loyalty  and  patriotism — loyalty  and  patriotism  were  ex- 
pressed through  the  Provincial  religion,  i.e.  the  State  cult 
of  the  majesty  of  Rome  and  of  the  Emperor,  regulated  by 
the  Commune. 

The  Province  of  Asia  in  its  double  aspect  of  civil  and 
religious  administration,  the  Proconsul  and  the  Commune, 
is  symbolised  by  the  monster  described  xiii.  11.  ff.  This 
monster  had  two  horns  corresponding  to  this  double  aspect ; 
and  it  was  like  unto  a  Imnb^  for  Asia  was  a  peaceful 
country,  where  no  army  was  needed.  Yet  it  spake  as  a 
dragon^  for  the  power  of  Rome  expressed  itself  quite  as 
sternly  and  haughtily,  when  it  was  unsupported  by  troops, 
as  it  did  when  it  spoke  through  the  mouth  of  a  general  at 
the  head  of  an  army. 

The  monster  exerciseth  all  the  authority  of  the  first  Beast 
in  his  sight ;  for  the  provincial  administration  exercised 
the  full  authority  of  the  Roman  Empire,  delegated  to  the 
Proconsul  for  his  year  of  office. 

It  maketh  the  earth  and  all  that  dwell  therein  to  worship 
the  first  Beast,  for  the  provincial  administration  organised 
the  State  religion  of  the  Emperors.  The  Imperial  regula- 
tion that  all  loyal  subjects  must  conform  to  the  State 
religion  and  take  part  in  the  Imperial  ritual,  was  carried 
out  according  to  the  regulations  framed  by  the  Commune, 
which  arranged  the  ritual,  superintended  and  directed  its 
performance,  ordered  the  building  of  temples,  and  the  erec- 
tion of  statues,  fixed  the  holidays  and  festivals,  and  so  on — 


98  IX.    The  Flavian  Persecution 

saying  to  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth  that  they  should  make 
an  image  to  the  Beast. 

At  this  point  occurs  a  remarkable  series  of  statements, 
constituting  the  one  contemporary  account  of  the  Flavian 
persecution  of  the  Christians  in  Asia.  They  are  to  the 
effect  that  the  Commune  attempted  to  prove  the  truth  and 
power  of  the  Imperial  religion  by  means  of  miracles  and 
wonders  :  the  monster  "  doeth  great  signs,  that  he  should 
even  make  fire  to  come  down  out  of  heaven  upon  the  earth  in 
the  sight  of  men ;  and  he  deceiveth  them  that  dwell  on  the 
earth  by  reason  of  the  signs  which  it  was  given  him  to  do  in 
the  sight  of  the  Beast ;  saying  to  them  that  dwell  on  the  earth 
that  they  should  make  an  image  to  the  Beast.  And  it  was 
given  him  to  give  breath  to  the  statue  of  the  Beast,  that  the 
statue  of  the  Beast  should  both  speak  and  cause  that  as  many 
as  should  not  worship  the  statue  of  the  Beast  should  be  killed." 
The  last  statement  is  familiar  to  us  ;  it  is  not  directly 
attested  for  the  Flavian  period  by  pagan  authorities,  but  it 
is  proved  by  numerous  Christian  authorities,  and  corrobor- 
ated by  known  historical  facts,  and  by  the  interpretation 
which  Trajan  stated  about  twenty-five  years  later  of  the 
principles  of  Imperial  procedure  in  this  department.  It  is 
s'mply  the  straightforward  enunciation  of  the  rule  as  to  the 
kind  of  trial  that  should  be  given  to  those  who  were  ac- 
cused of  Christianity.  The  accused  were  required  to  prove 
their  loyalty  by  performing  an  act  of  religious  worship  of 
the  statue  of  the  Emperor,  which  (as  Pliny  mentioned  to 
Trajan)  was  brought  into  court  in  readiness  for  the  test :  if 
they  performed  the  ritual,  they  were  acquitted  and  dis- 
missed :  if  they  refused  to  perform  it,  they  were  condemned 
to  death.  No  other  proof  was  sought  ;  no  investigation 
was  made ;  no  accusation  of  any  specific  crime  or  misdeed 


As  depicted  in  the  Apocalypse  99 

was  made,  as  had  been  the  case  in  the  persecution  of  Nero, 
which  is  described  by  Tacitus.  That  short  and  simple  pro- 
cedure was  legal,  prescribed  by  Imperial  instructions,  and 
complete. 

No  scholar  now  doubts  that  the  account  given  in  these 
words  of  the  Apocalypse  represents  quite  accurately  the 
procedure  in  the  Flavian  persecution.  Criticism  for  a  time 
attempted  to  discredit  the  unanimous  Christian  testimony, 
because  it  was  unsupp:)rted  by  dii'ect  pagan  testimony ; 
and  signally  failed.     The  attempt  is  abandoned  now. 

Quite  correct  also  is  the  statement  that  "the  Province" 
ordered  the  inhabitants  of  Asia  to  make  a  statue  in  honour 
of  the  Beast.  The  Commune  ordered  the  construction  of 
statues  of  the  Imperial  gods,  and  especially  the  statue  of 
the  Divine  Augustus  in  the  temple  at  Pergamum. 

But  the  other  statements  in  this  remarkable  passage  are 
entirely  uncorroborated  :  no  even  indirect  evidence  supports 
them.  It  is  nowhere  said  or  hinted,  except  in  this  passage, 
that  the  State  cultus  in  Asia,  the  most  civilised  and  edu- 
cated part  of  the  Empire,  recommended  itself  by  tricks  and 
pseudo-miracles,  such  as  bringing  down  fire  from  heaven  or 
making  the  Imperial  image  speak.  With  regard  to  these 
statements  we  are  reduced  to  mere  general  presumptions 
and  estimate  of  probabilities. 

Are  we  then  to  discredit  them  as  inventions,  or  as  mere 
repetitions  of  traditional  apocalyptic  ideas  and  images,  not 
really  applicable  to  this  case  ?  By  no  means.  This  is  the 
one  contemporary  account  that  has  been  preserved  of  the 
Flavian  procedure :  the  one  solitary  account  of  the  methods 
practised  then  by  the  Commune  in  recommending  and  es- 
tablishing the  State  religion.  It  is  thoroughly  uncritical  to 
accept  from  it  two  details,  which  are  known  from  other 


icx)  IX.   The  Flavian  Persecution 

sources  to  be  true,  and  to  dismiss  the  rest  as  untrue,  be- 
cause they  are  neither  corroborated  nor  contradicted  by 
other  authorities.  This  account  stands  alone :  there  is  no 
other  authority :  it  is  corroborated  indirectly  in  the  main 
facts.  The  accessory  details,  therefore,  are  probably  true : 
they  are  not  entirely  unlikely,  though  it  is  rather  a  shock  to 
us  to  find  that  such  conduct  is  attributed  to  the  Commune 
in  that  highly  civilised  age — highly  civilised  in  many  re- 
spects, but  in  some  both  decadent  and  barbarous. 

It  must,  also,  be  remembered  that  the  people  of  the 
Province  Asia  were  not  all  equally  educated  and  civilised : 
many  of  them  had  no  Greek  education,  but  were  sunk  in 
ignorance  and  the  grossest  Oriental  superstition.  There 
is  no  good  reason  apparent  why  this  contemporary  account 
should  be  disbelieved  ;  and  we  must  accept  it. 

The  attempt  was  made  under  the  authority  of  the  Com- 
mune, by  one  or  more  of  its  delegates  in  charge  of  the 
various  temples  and  the  ritual  practised  at  them,  to  impress 
the  populace  with  the  might  of  the  Imperial  divinity  by 
showing  signs  and  miracles,  by  causing  fire  to  burst  forth 
without  apparent  cause,  and  declaring  that  it  came  down 
from  heaven,  and  by  causing  speech  to  seem  to  issue  from 
the  statue  in  the  temple.  The  writer  accepts  those  signs 
as  having  really  occurred :  the  monster  was  permitted 
by  God  to  perform  those  marvels,  and  to  delude  men  for 
a  time.  None  of  the  details  which  this  contemporary 
account  mentions  is  incredible  or  even  improbable.  A 
Roman  Proconsul  in  Cyprus  had  a  Magian  as  his  friend 
and  teacher  in  science :  the  Magian  probably  showed  him 
the  sign  of  spontaneous  fire  bursting  forth  at  his  orders. 
In  a  Roman  Colony  at  Philippi  a  ventriloquist,  a  slave  girl, 
earned  large  sums  for  her  owners  by  fortune-telling  (Acts 


As  depicted  in  the  Apocalypse  loi 

xvi.  1 6).  Why  should  we  refuse  to  believe  that  ventrilo- 
quism was  employed  in  an  Asian  temple  at  this  time  of 
excited  feeling  among  both  persecutors  and  persecuted? 

It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  the  Commune  of 
Asia  encouraged  and  practised  everywhere  such  methods. 
It  would  be  sufficient  justification  for  the  statements  in 
this  passage,  if  the  methods  were  practised  by  any  of  its 
official  representatives  in  any  of  the  Asian  temples  of  the 
Imperial  religion,  without  condemnation  from  the  Com- 
mune, There  is  no  reason  to  think  that  the  shrine  of  the 
Sibyl  at  Thyatira^  was  alien  to  such  impostures,  or  that 
the  people  in  Ephesus,  who  were  impressed  by  the  magical 
powers  of  the  sons  of  Sceva  (Acts  xix.  13  f.)  and  duped 
by  other  fraudulent  exhibitors,  were  unlikely  to  be  taken 
in  by  such  arts,  when  practised  with  official  sanction. 

That  these  marvels  and  signs  were  connected  more  par- 
ticularly with  one  individual,  and  not  so  much  with  the 
Commune  as  a  body,  is  suggested  by  the  only  other 
reference  to  them,  viz.  xix.  20,  when  the  Beast  and  the 
kings  of  the  earth  and  their  armies  gathered  together  to 
make  war  against  Him  that  sat  upon  the  horse  and  against 
His  army ;  and  the  Beast  was  taken,  and  with  him  the 
false  prophet  that  wrought  the  signs  in  his  sight,  where- 
with he  deceived  them  that  had  received  the  mark  of  the 
Beast  and  them  that  worshipped  his  image.  We  must 
understand  that  these  words  refer  to  some  definite  person, 
who  exercised  great  influence  in  some  part  of  Asia  and 
was  the  leading  spirit  in  performing  the  marvels  and  signs. 
He  is  as  real  as  the  prophetess  of  Thyatira,  ii.  20.  He  had 
been  prominent  in  deceiving  the  people  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Imperial  government,  and  is  associated  with  its  ap- 
proaching destruction.     This  association  in  ruin  would  be 


I02  IX.    The  Flavian  Persecution 

all  the  more  telling,  if  the  prophet  had  visited  Rome  and 
been  received  by  some  of  the  Flavian  Emperors. 

A  personage  like  Apollonius  of  Tyana  would  suit  well 
the  allusions  in  the  Apocalypse.  He  lived  and  exercised 
great  influence  in  Asia,  especially  at  Ephesus,  where  after 
his  death  he  enjoyed  a  special  cult  as  "  the  averter  of  evil " 
(Alexikakos),  because  he  had  taught  the  city  how  to  free 
itsell  from  a  pestilence  by  detecting  the  human  being  under 
whose  form  the  disease  was  stalking  about  in  their  midst, 
and  putting  to  death  the  wretched  old  man  on  whom  (like 
an  Afiican  wizard  smelling  out  the  criminal)  he  fixed  the 
guilt.2 

Apollonius  enjoyed  widely  the  reputation  of  a  magician. 
He  had  been  well  received  in  Rome,  and  was  the  friend  of 
Vespasian,  Titus  and  Nerva.  His  biographer  Philostratus 
defends  him  from  the  charge  of  magic,  but  represents  him 
as  a  worker  of  signs  and  wonders  ;  and  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  St.  John  does  not  regard  the  prophet  as  an  im- 
postor, but  as  one  to  whom  //  was  given  to  perform  marvels. 
Philostratus,  it  is  true,  does  not  represent  him  as  an  up- 
holder of  the  Imperial  cultus,  and  rather  emphasises  his 
opposition  to  Domitian  ;  but  the  aim  of  the  biographer  is 
not  to  give  an  exact  history  of  Apollonius  as  he  was,  but  to 
place  an  ideal  picture  before  the  eyes  of  the  world.  There 
is  every  reason  to  think  that  a  man  like  Apollonius  would 
use  all  his  influence  in  favour  of  Vespasian  and  Titus,  and 
no  reason  to  think  that  he  would  discountenance  or  be  un- 
willing to  promote  the  Imperial  cultus.  While  he  was 
opposed  to  Domitian,  it  does  not  appear  that  the  mutual 
dislike  had  come  to  a  head  early  in  the  reign  of  that 
Emperor,  when  according  to  our  view  the  Apocalypse  was 
written,  though  Philostratus  represents  Apollonius  as  for 


As  depicted  in  the  Apocalypse  103 

seeing  everything  and  knowing  intuitively  the  character  of 
every  man. 

It  seems,  then,  quite  possible  that  Apollonius  may  actu- 
ally be  meant  by  this  prophet  associated  with  the  Beast ; 
but,  even  if  that  be  not  correct,  yet  it  is  certain  that  there  were 
other  magicians  and  workers  of  wonders  in  the  Asian  cities  ; 
and  it  is  in  no  way  improbable  that  one  of  them  may  have 
been  employed  as  an  agent,  even  as  a  high-priest,  of  the 
Imperial  religion.  The  over-stimulated,  cultured  yet  morbid 
society  of  the  i;reat  cities  of  Asia  Minor  furnished  a  fertile 
soil  for  the  development  of  such  soothsayers,  fortune-tellers 
and  dealers  in  magic:  Lucian's  account  of  Alexander  of 
Abonoteichos  in  Paphlagonia  may  be  taken  as  a  good  ex- 
ample in  the  second  century.  The  existence  of  many  such 
impostors  in  the  Province  Asia  during  the  first  century  is 
attested,  not  merely  by  the  passages  already  quoted  from 
the  Acts,  but  also  by  an  incident  recorded  by  Philostratus 
in  the  biogiaphy  of  Apollonius,  vii.,  41.  The  Asian  cities 
by  the  Hellespont,  dreading  the  recurrence  of  earthquakes, 
contributed  ten  talents  to  certain  Egyptians  and  Chaldaeans 
for  a  great  sacrifice  to  avert  the  danger.  Apollonius  en- 
countered and  drove  away  the  impostors — the  circumsta  ces 
of  the  contest  are  not  recorded — discovered  the  reason  why 
Earth  and  Sea  were  angry,  offered  the  proper  expiatory 
sacrifices,  averted  the  danger  at  a  small  expense,  and  the 
earth  stood  fast' 

The  monster,  who  stands  for  the  Province,  is  described 
as  coming  up  out  of  the  earth.  He  is  contrasted  with  the 
Beast  which  came  up  out  of  the  sea.  They  are  thus  de- 
scribed as  native  and  as  foreign  :  the  one  belongs  to  the 
same  land  as  the  readers  of  the  Apocalypse,  the  other 
comes  from  across  the  sea,  and  seems  to  rise  out  of  the  sea 


I04  IX.   The  Flavian  Persecution 

as  it  comes.  This  form  of  expression  was  usual,  both  in 
language  and  in  art.  Foreign  products  and  manufactures 
were  described  as  "  of  the  sea  "  (daXdara-ia) :  we  use  "  sea- 
borne "  in  the  same  sense  :  the  goddess  who  came  in  with 
the  Phoenicians,  as  patroness  and  protectress  of  the  Sidonian 
ships,  was  represented  as  "rising  from  the  sea".     Beings 


Fig.  6. — The  Earth-Goddess  giving  the  child  Erysichthon  to  Athena. 

native  to  the  country,  or  closely  connected  with  the  earth, 
were  represented  in  art  as  reclining  on  the  ground  (^.^., 
river-  or  mountain-gods,  as  in  Fig.  20,  p.  263),  or  emerging 
with  only  half  their  figure  out  of  the  ground  (as  the  goddess 
of  the  earth  in  Fig.  6). 

Thus  the  Beast  was  marked  clearly  to  the  readers  as 


As  depicted  in  the  Apocalypse  105 

having  a  home  beyond  the  sea,  while  the  monster  was 
closely  connected  with  their  own  soil,  and  had  its  home  in 
their  own  country. 

The  monster  causeth  ally  the  small  and  the  great,  and  the 
rich  and  the  poor,  and  the  free  and  the  bond,  that  there  be 
given  them  a  mark  on  their  right  hand  or  upon  their  fore- 
head;  and  that  no  man  sJiould  be  able  to  buy  or  to  sell,  save 
he  that  hath  the  mark,  the  name  of  the  Beast  or  the  nuviber 
of  his  name. 

This  refers  to  some  unknown,  but  (as  will  be  shown)  not 
in  itself  improbable  attempt,  either  through  official  regula- 
tion or  informal  "  boycott,"  to  injure  the  Asian  Christians 
by  preventing  dealings  with  traders  and  shopkeepers  who 
had  not  proved  their  loyalty  to  the  Emperor.  That  such 
an  attempt  may  have  been  made  in  the  Flavian  perse- 
cution seems  quite  possible.  It  is  not  described  here  as 
an  Imperial,  but  only  as  a  provincial  regulation  ;  now  it 
is  absolutely  irreconcilable  with  the  principles  of  Roman 
administration  that  the  Proconsul  should  have  issued  any 
order  of  the  kind  except  with  Imperial  authorisation  ;  there- 
fore we  must  regard  this  as  a  recommendation  originating 
from  the  Commune  of  Asia.  The  Commune  would  have  no 
authority  to  issue  a  command  or  law ;  but  it  might  signalise 
its  devotion  to  the  Emperor  by  recommending  that  the 
disloyal  should  be  discountenanced  by  the  loyal,  and  that 
all  loyal  subjects  should  try  to  restrict  their  custom  to  those 
who  were  of  proved  loyalty.  Such  a  recommendation 
might  be  made  by  a  devoted  and  courtly  body  like  the 
Commune ;  and  it  was  legal  to  do  this,  because  all  who 
refused  to  engage  in  the  public  worship  of  the  Emperors 
were  proscribed  by  Imperial  act  as  traitors  and  outlaws, 
possessing  no  rights. 


io6  IX.    The  Flavian  Persecution 

Only  some  enactment  of  this  kind  seems  adequate  to 
explain  this  remarkable  statement  of  xiii.  i6  f  In  a  very- 
interesting  section  of  his  Biblical  Studies,  p.  241  f.,  Dr. 
Deissmann  describes  the  official  stamp  impressed  on  legal 
deeds  recording  and  registering  the  sale  of  property ;  and 
maintains  that  this  whole  passage  takes  its  origin  from 
the  custom  of  marking  with  the  Imperial  stamp  all  records 
of  sale.  This  seems  an  inadequate  explanation.  The  mark 
of  the  Beast  was  a  preliminary  condition,  and  none  who 
wanted  it  were  admitted  to  business  transactions.  But  the 
official  stamp  was  merely  the  concomitant  guarantee  of 
legality  ;  it  was  devoid  of  religious  character  ;  and  there 
was  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be  used  by  Christians  as 
freely  as  by  pagans. 

That  the  mark  of  the  Beast  must  be  impressed  in  the  right 
hand  or  the  forehead  is  a  detail  which  remains  obscure : 
we  know  too  little  to  explain  it  with  certainty.  If  it  had 
been  called  simply  the  mark  on  the  forehead,  it  might  be 
regarded  as  the  public  proof  of  loyalty  by  performance  of 
the  ritual :  this  overt,  public  proof  might  be  symbolically 
called  "  a  mark  on  the  forehead  ".  But  the  mention  of  an 
alternative  place  for  the  mark  shows  that  a  wider  explana- 
tion is  needed.  The  proof  of  loyalty  might  be  made  in  two 
ways  ;  both  were  patent  and  public  ;  they  are  symbolically 
described  as  the  mark  on  the  right  hand  or  on  the  forehead ; 
without  one  or  the  other  no  one  was  to  be  dealt  with  by  the 
loyal  provincials. 

That  something  like  a  "boycott"  might  be  attempted  in 
the  fervour  of  loyal  hatred  for  the  disloyal  Christians  seems 
not  impossible.  That  "strikes"  occurred  in  the  Asian 
cities  seems  established  by  an  inscription  of  Magnesia;* 
and  where  "  strikes  "  occur,  an  attempted  "  boycott  "  seems 


As  depicted  in  the  Apocalypse  107 

also  possible.  But  the  character  attributed  to  this  mark  of 
the  Beast  extends  far  beyond  the  operation  of  a  mere 
restriction  on  trading  transactions.  It  must  be  remem- 
bered that  the  age  was  the  extremest  and  worst  period  of 
"delation,"  i.e.  of  prosecution  by  volunteer  accusers  on 
charges  of  treason.  The  most  trifling  or  the  most  serious 
actions  were  alike  liable  to  be  twisted  into  acts  of  personal 
disrespect  to  the  Emperor,  and  thus  to  expose  the  doer  of 
them  to  the  extremest  penalty  of  the  law  ;  a  falsehood  told, 
a  theft  committed,  a  wrong  word  spoken,  in  the  presence  of 
any  image  or  representation  of  the  Emperor,  might  be  con- 
strued as  disrespect  to  his  sacred  majesty :  even  his  bust  on 
a  coin  constituted  the  locality  an  abode  of  the  Imperial 
god,  and  made  it  necessary  for  those  who  were  there  to 
behave  as  in  the  Divine  presence.  Domitian  carried  the 
theory  of  Imperial  Divinity  and  the  encouragement  of 
"  delation "  to  the  most  extravagant  point ;  and  thereby 
caused  a  strong  reaction  in  the  subsequent  Imperial  policy. 
Precisely  in  that  time  of  extravagance  occurs  this  ex- 
travagant exaggeration  of  the  Imperial  theory  :  that  in  one 
way  or  another  every  Asian  must  stamp  himself  overtly 
and  visibly  as  loyal,  or  be  forthwith  disqualified  from  parti- 
cipation in  ordinary  social  life  and  trading.  How  much  of 
grim  sarcasm,  how  much  of  literal  truth,  how  much  of 
exaggeration,  there  lies  in  those  words, — that  no  man  should 
be  able  to  buy  or  selly  save  he  that  hath  the  mark  of  the  Beast 
on  his  right  hand  or  upon  his  forehead, — it  is  impossible  for 
us  now  to  decide.  It  is  probably  safe  to  say  that  there 
lies  in  them  a  good  deal  of  sarcasm,  combined  with  so  much 
resemblance  to  the  real  facts  as  should  ensure  the  immediate 
comprehension  of  the  readers.  But  that  there  is  an  ideal 
truth  in  them,  that  they  give  a  picture  of  the  state  of  anxiety 


io8  IX.   The  Flavian  Persecution 

and  apprehension,  of  fussy  and  over-zealous  profession  of 
loyalty  which  the  policy  of  Domitian  was  producing  in  the 
Roman  world,  is  certain. 

This  is  the  description  given  by  St,  John  of  the  Flavian 
persecution.  It  shows  that  persecution  to  have  been  an 
organised  attempt  to  combine  many  influences  so  as  to 
exterminate  the  Christians,  and  not  a  mere  sporadic  though 
stern  repression  such  as  occurred  repeatedly  during  the 
second  century.  But  it  is  already  certain  that  the  Flavian 
persecution  was  of  that  character.  Trajan,  while  admitting 
the  same  principle  of  State,  that  the  Christians  must  be 
regarded  as  outlaws  and  treated  like  brigands,  deprived 
persecution  of  its  worst  characteristics  by  forbidding  the 
active  search  after  Christians  and  requiring  a  formal  accusa- 
tion by  a  definite  accuser.  Under  the  Flavian  Emperors 
we  see  an  extremely  cruel  and  bitter  public  movement 
against  the  Christians,  an  attempt  to  enlist  religious  feeling 
on  the  side  of  the  Empire,  and  a  zealous  participation  of 
the  Asian  provincial  bodies,  beginning  from  the  Commune, 
in  the  persecution  as  a  proof  of  their  loyalty. 

A  recent  writer  on  this  subject  expresses  doubt  as  to 
"  the  degree  to  which  the  worship  of  the  Emperor  had 
become  the  normal  test  applied  to  one  accused  of  being 
a  Christian  ".^  How  any  doubt  can  remain  in  face  of  this 
passage,  even  were  it  alone,  it  is  hard  to  see.  It  is  difficult 
to  devise  a  more  effective  and  conclusive  declaration  that 
the  religion  of  Christ  and  the  religion  of  the  Emperor  were 
now  explicitly  and  professedly  ranged  against  one  another, 
and  that  the  alternative  presented  to  every  individual  Chris- 
tian  was  to  ''^worship  the  image  of  the  Beast"  or  death. 

It  furnishes  no  argument  against  this  view  of  the  character 
of  the  Flavian  persecution  that,  during  the  persecutions  of 


As  depicted  in  the  Apocalypse  109 

the  second  century,  no  attempt  seems  to  have  been  made 
actively  to  stimulate  religious  feeling  among  the  populace 
as  an  ally  against  the  new  religion.  The  attempt  was  made 
in  the  last  great  persecution,  during  the  times  of  Diocletian 
and  his  successors.  Then  again  the  Imperial  government 
attempted  to  seek  out  and  exterminate  the  Christians.  It 
"  took  advantage  of  and  probably  stimulated  a  philosophical 
religious  revival,  characterised  by  strong  anti-Christian  feel- 
ing ;  and  employed  for  its  own  ends  the  power  of  a  fervid 
emotion  acting  on  men  who  were  often  of  high  and  strongly 
religious  motives.  Christianity  had  to  deal  with  a  rein- 
vigorated  and  desperate  religion,  educated  and  spiritualised 
in  the  conflict  with  the  Christians.  The  Acta  of  St. 
Theodotus  of  Ancyra  furnishes  an  instance  of  the  way  in 
which  the  devoted  fanaticism  of  such  men  made  them  con- 
venient tools  for  carrying  out  the  purposes  of  the  govern- 
ment ;  ^  the  approach  of  the  new  governor  of  Galatia  and 
the  announcement  of  his  intentions  struck  terror  into  the 
hearts  of  the  Christians  ;  his  name  was  Theotecnus,  '  the 
child  of  God,'  a  by-name  assumed  by  a  philosophic  pagan 
reactionary  in  competition  with  the  confidence  of  the  Chris- 
tians in  their  Divine  mission  and  the  religious  names  which 
their  converts  assumed  at  baptism."  ^  This  description 
gives  some  idea  of  the  state  of  things  in  the  Province 
Asia  which  prompted  the  words  of  St.  John.  We  need 
not  doubt  that  Theotecnus  and  others  like  him  also  made 
use  of  signs  and  marvels  for  their  purposes.  Theotecnus 
seems  to  have  been  the  author  of  the  Acts  of  Pilate,  an 
attack  on  the  Christian  belief  A  remarkable  inscription 
found  near  Acmonia  in  Phrygia  is  the  epitaph  of  one  of 
those  pagan  philosophic  zealots,  not  an  official  of  the 
Empire,  but  a  leading  citizen  and  priest  in  the  Province.' 


no  IX.   The  Flavian  Persecution 

He  is  described  in  his  epitaph  as  having  received  the  gift 
of  prophecy  from  the  gods.  His  very  name  Athanatos 
Epitynchanos,  son  of  Pius,  Immortal  Fortunate,  son  of 
Religious,  quite  in  the  style  of  the  Pilgrim's  Progress^ 
marks  his  character  and  part  in  the  drama  of  the  time. 
His  pretensions  to  prophetic  gift  were  supported,  we  may 
be  sure,  by  signs  and  marvels. 

Less  is  known  about  the  second  last  persecution,  249-51 
A.D.,  in  which  Decius  attempted  in  a  similar  way  to  seek 
out  and  exterminate  the  Christians.  But  another  inscrip- 
tion of  Acmonia  is  the  epitaph  of  a  relative,  perhaps  the 
grandfather  or  uncle  of  Athanatos  Epitynchanos.^  His 
name  was  Telesphoros,  Consummator,  and  he  was  hiero- 
phant  of  a  religious  association  in  Acmonia ;  and  his  wife 
and  his  sons  Epitynchanos  and  Epinikos  (Victorious)  made 
his  grave  in  company  with  the  whole  association.  This 
document  is  a  proof  that  a  similar  religious  pagan  revival 
accompanied  the  persecution  of  Decius  in  Acmonia ;  and 
Acmonia  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  example  of  the  provincial 
spirit  in  the  persecutions.  It  is  evident  that,  in  those  great 
persecutions,  a  strong  public  feeling  against  the  Christians 
stimulated  the  Emperors  to  action,  and  that  the  Emperors, 
in  turn,  tried  to  urge  on  the  religious  feeling  of  the  public 
into  fanaticism,  as  an  aid  in  the  extermination  of  the 
sectaries. 

In  the  two  last  persecutions  official  certificates  of  loyalty 
were  issued  to  those  who  had  complied  with  the  law  and 
taken  part  in  the  ritual  of  the  Imperial  religion.  These 
certificates  form  an  apt  parallel  to  the  "  mark  of  the  Beast," 
and  prove  that  that  phrase  refers  to  some  real  feature  of  the 
Flavian  persecution  in  Asia.^° 

Those  three  persecutions  stand  apart  from  all  the  rest 


As  depicted  in  the  Apocalypse  1 1 1 

in  a  class  by  themselves.  The  intermediate  Emperors 
shrank  from  thoroughly  and  logically  putting  in  practice 
the  principle  which  they  all  recognised  in  theory — that  a 
Christian  was  necessarily  disloyal  and  outlawed  in  virtue 
of  the  name  and  confession.  All  three  are  characterised 
by  the  same  features  and  methods,  which  stand  clearly 
revealed  in  the  Apocalypse  for  the  first  of  them  and  in 
many  documents  for  the  last. 

The  analogy  of  the  official  certificates  in  the  time  of 
Diocletian  suggests  that  in  the  Flavian  period  the  mark  of 
the  Beast  on  the  right  hand  may  have  been  a  similar  official 
certificate  of  loyalty.  A  provincial  who  was  exposed  to 
suspicion  must  carry  in  his  hand  such  a  certificate,  while 
one  who  was  notoriously  and  conspicuously  loyal  might  be 
said  to  carry  the  mark  on  his  forehead.  In  the  figurative 
or  symbolic  language  of  the  Apocalypse  hardly  anything 
is  called  by  its  ordinary  and  direct  name,  but  things  are 
indirectly  alluded  to  under  some  other  name,  and  words 
have  to  be  understood  as  implying  something  else  than 
their  ordinary  connotation  ;  and  therefore  it  seems  a  fair 
inference  that  the  mark  on  the  forehead  is  the  apocalyptic 
description  of  a  universal  reputation  for  conspicuous  de- 
votion to  the  cult  of  the  Emperor. 

The  shadow  of  the  Imperial  religion  lies  deep  over  the 
whole  book.  But  the  remarkable  feature  of  the  book — the 
feature  which  gave  it  its  place  in  the  New  Testament  in 
spite  of  some  undeniable  defects,  which  for  a  time  made  its 
place  uncertain,  and  which  still  constitute  a  senous  difficulty 
in  reading  it  as  an  authoritative  expression  of  the  Christian 
spirit — is  that  the  writer  is  never  for  a  moment  affected  by 
the  shadow.  He  was  himself  a  sufferer,  not  to  death,  but 
to  what  he  would  feel  as  a  worse  fate  :  he  was  debarred 


112  IX.    The  Flavian  Persecution 

from  helping  and  advising  his  Churches  in  the  hour  of  trial. 
But  there  is  no  shadow  of  sorrow  or  discouragement  or 
anxiety  as  to  the  issue.  The  Apocalypse  is  a  vision  of 
victory.  The  great  Empire  is  already  vanquished.  It  has 
done  its  worst ;  and  it  has  already  failed.  Not  all  the 
Christians  have  been  victors ;  but  those  who  have  deserted 
their  ranks  and  dropped  out  of  the  fight  have  done  so  from 
inner  incapacity,  and  not  because  the  persecuting  Emperor 
is  stronger  than  they.  Every  battle  fought  to  the  end  is  a 
defeat  for  the  Empire  and  a  Christian  victory.  Every 
effort  that  the  Emperor  makes  is  only  another  opportunity 
for  failing  more  completely.  The  victory  is  not  to  gain : 
it  already  is.  The  Church  is  the  only  reality  in  its  city : 
the  rest  of  the  city  is  mere  pretence  and  sham.  The  Church 
is  the  city,  heir  to  all  its  history  and  its  glories,  heir  too  to 
its  weaknesses  and  its  difficulties  and  sometimes  succumb- 
ing to  them. 

The  most  dangerous  kind  of  error  that  can  be  made 
about  the  Apocalypse  is  to  regard  it  as  a  literal  statement 
and  prediction  of  events.  Thus,  for  example  xviii.  i-xix.  21 
is  not  to  be  taken  as  a  prophecy  of  the  manner  in  which, 
or  the  time  at  which,  the  downfall  of  the  great  Empire  and 
of  the  great  City  was  to  be  accomplished  ;  it  is  not  to  be 
understood  as  foreshadowing  the  Papacy,  according  to  the 
foolish  imaginings,  "philosophy  and  vain  deceit"  as  St. 
Paul  would  have  called  them  (Col.  ii.  8)  of  one  modern 
school ;  it  is  not  to  be  tortured  by  extremists  on  any  side 
into  conformity  with  their  pet  hatreds.  Those  are  all  idle 
fancies,  which  do  harm  to  no  one  except  those  who  waste 
their  intellect  on  them.  But  it  becomes  a  serious  evil 
when  the  magnificent  confidence  and  certainty  of  St.  John 
as  to   the   speedy   accomplishment  of  all   these  things   is 


As  depicted  in  the  Apocalypse  1 1 3 

distorted  into  a  declaration  of  the  immediate  Coming  of 
the  Lord  and  the  end  of  the  world.  Time  was  not  an 
element  in  his  anticipation.  He  was  gazing  on  the  eternal, 
in  which  time  has  no  existence.  Had  any  Asian  reader 
asked  him  at  what  time  these  things  should  be  accom- 
plished, he  would  assuredly  have  answered  in  the  spirit  of 
Browning's  Grammarian  : — 

What's  time  ?     Leave  "  now  "  to  dogs  and  apes : 
Man  has  forever. 

Moreover,  it  is  declared  in  the  plainest  language  which 
the  Apocalypse  admits  that  the  series  of  the  Emperors  is 
to  continue  yet  for  a  season.  The  Beast  himself  is  the 
eighth  king  {i.e.  Emperor,  according  to  the  strict  technical 
usage  of  the  Greek  word) :  he  is  the  incarnation  and  climax 
of  the  whole  seven  that  precede:  he  is  Domitian  himself  as 
the  visible  present  embodiment  of  the  Impeiial  system.  But 
the  beast  has  also  ten  horns :  these  are  ten  Emperors^  which 
have  not  been  invested  with  Imperial  power  as  yet ;  but  they 
receive  authority  as  Emperors  with  the  Beast  {i.e.  as  units  in 
the  Imperial  system)  for  one  hour:  these  shall  war  against 
the  Lamb,  and  the  Lamb  shall  overcome  them  :  xvii.  12,  14. 

The  number  ten  is  here  to  be  interpreted  as  in  ii.  10, 
where  the  Church  of  Smyrna  is  to  be  exposed  to  persecu- 
tion for  ten  days.  It  merely  denotes  a  finite  number  as 
contrasted  with  infinity :  the  series  of  Emperors  is  limited 
and  comes  to  an  end  in  due  season.  Rome  shall  perish. 
In  one  sense  Rome  is  perishing  now  in  every  failure  that  it 
makes,  in  the  victory  of  every  martyr.  The  Beast  was  and 
is  not.  In  another  sense  the  end  is  not  yet.  But  there  is  an 
end.  The  power  of  every  Emperor  v&for  one  hour :  he  shall 
live  his  little  span  of  pomp  and  pride,  of  power  and  failure, 
and  he  shall  go  down  to  the  abyss,  like  his  predecessors. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  PROVINCE  OF  ASIA  AND  THE  IMPERIAL  RELIGION. 

The  Roman  Province  of  Asia  included  most  of  the  western 
half  of  Asia  Minor,  with  the  countries  or  regions  of  Caria, 
Lydia,  Phrygia,  Mysia,  and  the  coast-lands  of  the  Troad, 
iEolis  and  Ionia.  It  was  the  earliest  Roman  possession 
on  the  continent  of  Asia.  Conquered  by  the  Romans  in 
the  war  against  Antiochus  the  Great,  it  was  given  by  them 
to  their  ally  Eumenes,  King  of  Pergamum,  at  the  peace 
which  was  concluded  in  189  B.C. ;  and  in  133  B.C.  it  was 
bequeathed  by  his  nephew  and  adopted  son  Attalus  III.  to 
the  great  conquering  people.  The  real  existence  of  this 
will,  formerly  suspected  to  be  a  mere  invention  of  the 
Romans,  is  now  established  by  definite  testimony.  The 
King  knew  that  the  illegitimate  Aristonicus  would  claim 
the  Kingdom,  and  that  there  was  no  way  of  barring  him 
out  except  through  the  strength  of  Rome. 

Thus  Asia  had  been  a  Roman  Province  for  more  than 
two  hundred  years  when  the  Seven  Letters  were  written. 
Its  history  under  Roman  rule  had  been  chequered.  It  was 
the  wealthiest  region  of  the  whole  Roman  Empire,  and  was 
therefore  peculiarly  tempting  to  the  greed  of  the  average 
Roman  official.  Amid  the  misgovernment  and  rapacity 
that  attended  the  last  years  of  the  Republic,  Asia  suffered 
terribly.  The  Asiatics  possessed  money  ;  and  the  ordinary 
Roman,  whose  characteristic  faults  were  greed  and  cruelty, 

(114) 


Province  of  Asia  and  the  Imperial  Religion      1 1 5 

shrank  from  no  crime  in  order  to  enrich  himself  quickly 
during  his  short  tenure  of  office  in  the  richest  region  of  the 
world.  Hence  the  Province  welcomed  with  the  enthusiasm 
of  people  brought  back  from  death  to  life  the  advent  of  the 
Empire,  which  inaugurated  an  era  of  comparative  peace, 
order,  and  respect  for  property.  In  no  part  of  the  world, 
probably,  was  there  such  fervent  and  sincere  loyalty  to 
the  Emperors  as  in  Asia.  Augustus  had  been  a  saviour  to 
the  Asian  peoples,  and  they  deified  him  as  the  Saviour  of 
mankind,  and  worshipped  him  with  the  most  whole-hearted 
devotion  as  the  God  incarnate  in  human  form,  the  "  present 
deity  ".  He  alone  stood  between  them  and  death  or  a  life 
of  misery  and  torture.  They  hailed  the  birthday  of  Au- 
gustus as  the  beginning  of  a  new  year,  and  worshipped 
the  incarnate  God  in  public  and  in  private  (p.  54). 

In  order  to  understand  rightly  the  position  of  Chris- 
tianity in  Asia  and  the  spirit  of  the  Seven  Asian  Letters,  it 
is  necessary  to  conceive  clearly  the  means  whereby  the  Im- 
perial policy  sought  to  unify  and  consolidate  the  Province. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  several  of  the  features  of 
Christianity  were  determined  in  Asia.  Roman  Provincial 
unity,  founded  in  a  common  religion,  was  the  strongest 
idea  in  Asia,  and  it  must  inevitably  influence,  whether 
directly  or  through  the  recoil  from  and  opposition  to  it, 
the  growth  of  such  an  organisation  as  the  Church  in  Asia, 
for  the  Christian  Church  from  the  beginning  recognised  the 
political  facts  of  the  time  and  accommodated  itself  to  them. 

Meetings  of  representatives  of  the  Asian  cities  were  held 
at  least  as  early  as  95  B.C.,  and  probably  date  from  the 
time  of  the  Pergamenian  kings.  Doubtless  the  kings  tried 
to  make  their  kingdom  a  real  unity,  with  a  common  feeling 
and  patriotism,  and  not  merely  an  agglomeration  of  parts 


1 1 6  X.   The  Province  of  Asia 

tied  together  under  compulsion  and  external  authority; 
and,  if  so,  they  could  attain  this  end  only  by  instituting 
a  common  worship.  In  the  case  of  the  Asian  Commune 
a  Pergamenian  origin  seems  proved  by  the  name  of  the 
representatives  in  the  official  formula  "it  seemed  good  to 
the  Hellenes  in  Asia  ".  It  appears  improbable  that  an  as- 
sembly which  had  been  formed  by  the  Romans  for  diffusing 
Roman  ideas  would  have  borne  officially  the  name  of  "  the 
Hellenes  in  Asia".^  But  the  Pergamenian  kings  counted 
themselves  the  champions  of  Hellenism  against  Asiatic 
barbarism ;  and  their  partisans  in  the  cities  were  "  the 
Hellenes  ". 

Such  common  cults  had  always  the  same  origin,  viz.^  in 
an  agreement  among  the  persons  or  cities  concerned  to 
unite  for  certain  purposes,  and  to  make  certain  deities 
witnesses  and  patrons  of  their  union.  Thus  every  treaty 
between  two  cities  had  its  religious  side,  and  involved  the 
common  performance  of  rites  by  representatives  of  both 
sides :  these  rites  might  be  performed  either  to  the  patron 
gods  of  the  two  cities  (which  was  usual),  or  to  some  god  or 
gods  chosen  by  common  consent.  The  same  process  was 
applied  when  a  larger  body  of  cities  agreed  (of  course  first 
of  all  by  negotiations  and  treaty)  to  form  a  union.  Every 
such  union  of  cities  had  its  religious  side  and  its  religious 
sanction  in  rites  performed  by  representatives  of  all  the 
cities.  These  representatives,  as  being  chosen  to  perform 
a  religious  duty,  were  priests  of  the  common  worship. 

It  is  an  easy  step,  though  not  a  necessary  one,  to  insti- 
tute also  city  temples  of  the  same  worship,  so  that  the  city 
may  itself  carry  on  the  same  ritual  on  its  own  behalf.  All 
that  is  necessary  for  the  common  worship  is  one  sacred 
place  where  the  meetings  can  be  held. 


And  the  Imperial  Religion  117 

In  the  Pergameni'an  time  the  common  cult  was  probably 
the  worship  of  the  typically  Pergamenian  deities  (whose 
worship  also  spread  to  some  of  the  Asian  cities,  as  is  pointed 
out,  p.  124).  The  policy  of  Rome  allowed  free  play  to  this 
religion,  as  it  always  did  to  any  social  institution  which  was 
not  disloyal  and  dangerous.  But  the  Asian  assembly  soon 
began  to  imitate  the  example  set  by  Smyrna  in  195  B.C. 
of  worshipping  the  power  of  Rome  ;  and  from  95  B.C. 
onwards  there  occur  cases  of  Asian  cults  of  beneficent 
Roman  officers  (Scaivola,  Q.  Cicero,  etc.),  as  well  as  of 
similar  municipal  cults.^  Such  an  Asian  cult  could  be  insti- 
tuted only  by  an  assembly  of  representatives  of  the  Asian 
cities,  and  the  old  Pergamenian  institution  thus  served  a 
Roman  purpose.  The  name  Commune  occurs  first  in  a 
letter  sent  by  M.  Antony  in  'i^'^  B.C.  to  "the  Commune  of 
the  Hellenes  of  Asia " ;  the  older  references  give  various 
names,  implying  always  an  assembly  of  Asian  represen- 
tatives.2  j^.  ^^g  Augustus  who  constituted  the  Commune 
finally,  using  its  loyalty  to  Rome  and  himself  for  an  Im- 
perial end. 

In  that  agglomeration  of  various  countries  and  nations, 
differing  in  race  and  in  speech,  the  one  deep-seated  unifying 
feeling  arose  from  the  common  relation  in  which  all  stood 
to  the  Emperor  and  to  Rome.  There  was  nothing  else  to 
hold  the  Province  together  in  a  unity  except  the  enthu- 
siastic loyalty  which  all  felt  to  the  Roman  Imperial  gov- 
ernment. There  was  not  then  in  any  of  the  races  that 
inhabited  the  Province  a  strong  national  feeling  to  run 
counter  to  the  Roman  loyalty.  It  does  not  appear  that 
Lydian  or  Phrygian  patriotism  and  national  feeling  had 
much  power  during  the  first  two  centuries  of  the  Province. 
Circumstances  had  long  been  such  that  national  patriotic 


1 1 8  X.   The  Province  of  Asia 

feeling  could  hardly  be  called  into  existence.  There  was 
plenty  of  strong  feeling  and  true  loyalty  among  the  in- 
habitants of  each  city  towards  their  own  city.  But  Greek 
life  and  the  Greek  spirit,  while  favourable  to  the  growth  of 
that  municipal  feeling,  did  not  encourage  a  wider  loyalty. 
It  remained  for  the  Roman  organisation  and  unifying  power 
to  widen  the  range  of  loyalty ;  and  the  first  important 
stage  in  this  process  came  through  that  intense  personal 
devotion  to  Augustus  as  the  Saviour  of  the  civilised  world 
and  bearer  of  the  Majesty  of  Rome. 

In  the  condition  of  human  thought  and  religious  con- 
ceptions that  then  prevailed,  such  an  intense  feeling  must 
take  a  religious  form.  Whatever  deeply  affected  the  minds 
of  a  body  of  men,  few  or  many,  inevitably  assumed  a 
religious  character.  No  union  or  association  of  any  kind 
was  then  possible  except  in  a  common  religion,  whose 
ritual  expressed  the  common  feelings  and  purpose.  Thus 
the  growth  of  an  Asian  Provincial  religion  of  Rome  and 
the  Emperor  was  natural. 

The  Imperial  policy  took  advantage  of  this  natural  growth, 
guided  it,  and  regulated  it,  but  did  not  call  it  into  existence. 
Augustus  at  first  rather  discouraged  it — doubtless  because 
he  dreaded  lest  its  anti-republican  character  might  offend 
Roman  sentiment.  But  it  was  too  strong  for  him  ;  and 
after  a  time  he  perceived  the  advantages  that  it  offered, 
and  proceeded  to  utilise  it  as  a  political  device,  binding 
together  the  whole  Province  in  a  common  religious  cere- 
monial, and  a  common  strong  feeling.  The  one  and  only 
Asian  unity  was  the  Imperial  cult.  It  was  directed  and 
elaborated  by  the  Commune  or  Common  Council  of  Asia, 
a  body  which  seems  to  have  had  more  of  the  "  representa- 
tive "  character  than  any  other  institution  of  ancient  times, 


And  the  Imperial  Religion  119 

and  thus  was  the  prototype  of  a  Parliament.  Asia  was 
divided  into  districts,  apparently,  and  a  certain  number 
of  cities  had  the  title  of  metropolis  ;  but  the  details  regard- 
ing the  representation  of  the  districts  or  the  metropoles 
in  the  Commune  are  unknown. 

The  relation  of  the  Christian  organisation  in  Asia  to  the 
Commune,  or  rather  to  the  tendency  towards  consolidation 
which  took  an  Imperial  form  in  the  Commune,  is  brought 
out  in  striking  relief  by  several  facts.  The  Commune  was 
the  common  assembly  of  the  Hellenes  of  Asia,  The  ten- 
dency towards  consolidation  was  a  fact  of  Hellenism,  not 
of  the  native  Anatolian  spirit.  Now  it  has  been  elsewhere 
shown  that  Christianity  was  at  first  far  more  strenuously 
opposed  to  the  native  spirit  than  to  the  Hellenic'  The  one 
reference  to  the  Commune  in  the  New  Testament  outside 
of  the  Apocalypse  is  in  Acts  xix.  31,  where  certain  members 
of  that  body,  "  chief  officers  of  Asia"  are  mentioned  as  friends 
of  St.  Paul,  and  took  his  side  against  the  mob  of  worshippers 
of  Ephesian  Artemis,  a  typically  Anatolian  goddess. 

Again  Christianity  in  Asia  expressed  itself  in  Greek,  not 
in  any  of  the  native  languages.  Although  the  majority, 
probably,  of  the  people  of  Phrygia  spoke  the  Phrygian 
language,  and  a  large  number  of  them  were  entirely  ignor- 
ant of  Greek  in  the  first  century,  yet  there  is  no  evidence 
and  no  probability  that  Christianity  ever  addressed  itself 
to  them  in  Phrygian.  St.  Paul  avoided  Phrygia,  with  the 
exception  of  the  two  cities  in  the  Phrygian  Region  of  the 
Roman  Province  Galatia,  viz.^  Antioch  and  Iconium  (Acts 
xvi.  6).  The  Church  in  Asia  was  Greek-speaking,  and  had 
become,  by  the  fourth  century,  the  most  powerful  agent  in 
making  a  knowledge  of  Greek  almost  universal,  even  in  the 
rural  parts  of  the  Province.     The  Greek  character  of  the 


1 20  X.    The  Province  of  Asia 

entire  Church  in  its  earlisr  stages — for  even  the  Church 
in  Rome  was  mainly  Greek  in  language  until  the  middle  of 
the  second  century — was  chiefly  determined  by  the  charac- 
ter of  the  Province  Asia  The  relation  of  the  Province  to 
the  Greek  language  therefore  needs  and  deserves  attention. 
The  Province  of  Asia  included  the  most  civilised  and 
educated  regions  of  the  Asiatic  continent,  ancient  and  famous 
Greek  cities  like  Cyme,  Colophon  and  Miletus,  the  realms 
of  former  lines  of  monarchs  like  the  Lydian  kings  at  Sardis, 
the  Attalid  kings  at  Pergamum,  and  the  Carian  kings  at 
Halicarnassus.  It  was  the  most  thoroughly  Hellenised 
part  of  all  Anatolia  or  Asia  Minor.  The  native  languages 
had  died  out  in  its  western  parts,  and  been  replaced  by 
Greek ;  Lydian  had  ceased  to  be  spoken  or  known  in 
Lydia,  when  Strabo  wrote  about  A.D.  20 ;  Carian  was  then 
probably  unknown  in  the  western  parts  of  Caria,  though 
the  central  and  eastern  districts  were  not  so  far  advanced. 
Mysia,  the  north-western  region  of  the  Province,  was  prob- 
ably in  a  similar  condition  to  Caria,  the  west  and  the 
coasts  entirely  Greek-speaking,  the  inner  parts  less  ad- 
vanced. Most  thoroughly  Anatolian  in  character,  and  least 
affected  by  Greek  civilisation,  was  Phrygia.  West  Phrygia 
and  especially  the  parts  adjoining  Lydia  were  most  affected 
by  Hellenism  ;  whereas  in  the  centre  and  east  the  Greek 
language  seems  to  have  been  hardly  known  outside  the 
great  cities  until  the  late  second  or  the  third  century  after 
Christ.  Even  in  the  western  parts,  it  is  proved  that  in  the 
rustic  and  rough  region  cf  Motella,  not  far  from  the  Lydian 
frontier,  Greek  was  strange  to  many  of  the  country  people 
at  least  as  late  as  the  second  century.  In  the  extreme  south- 
west of  Phrygia,  in  the  district  of  Cibyra,  Strabo  mentions 
that  four  languages  were  spoken  in  the  first  century,  viz.^ 


And  the  Imperial  Religion  121 

Greek,  Pisidian,  Solymian  and  Lydian.'*  The  last  had  died 
out  in  Lydia,  but  survived  in  the  speech  of  a  body  of 
Lydian  colonists  in  Cib}-ra,  just  as  Gaelic  is  more  widely 
preserved  and  more  exclusively  spoken  in  parts  of  Canada 
to-day  than  it  is  in  the  Highlands  of  Scotland. 

But  the  great  cities  of  the  Province  Asia  (as  distin- 
guished from  the  rural  parts),  except  a  few  of  the  most 
backward  Phrygian  towns,  were  pretty  thoroughly  Greek 
in  the  first  century  after  Christ ;  and  everywhere  through- 
out the  Province  all  education  was  Greek,  and  there  was 
probably  no  writing  except  in  Greek.  It  seems  to  have 
been  only  in  the  second  century  that  the  native  Anatolian 
feeling  revived,  and  writing  began  to  be  practised  in  the 
native  tongues  ;  at  least  all  inscriptions  in  the  Phrygian 
language  (except  those  of  the  ancient  kingdom,  before  the 
Persian  conquest)  seem  to  be  later  than  about  A.D.  150. 

Religion,  too,  was  in  outward  appearance  Hellenised  in 
the  cities ;  and  the  Anatolian  deities  were  there  commonly 
called  by  Greek  names.  But  this  was  only  a  superficial 
appearance  ;  the  ritual  and  the  character  of  the  religion 
continued  Anatolian  even  in  the  cities,  while  in  the  rural 
districts  there  was  not  even  an  outward  show  of  Hellenisa- 
tion. 

Thus,  in  the  Province  Asia,  there  was  a  great  mixture 
of  language,  manners  and  religion.  Apart  from  the  Roman 
unity,  the  various  nations  were  as  far  from  being  really 
uniform  in  character  and  customs  and  thought,  as  they  were 
from  being  one  in  blood.  The  Imperial  Government  did 
not  attempt  to  compel  the  various  peoples  to  use  Latin  or 
any  common  language :  it  did  not  try  to  force  Roman  law 
or  habits  and  ways  on  the  Province,  still  less  to  uproot  the 
Greek  civilisation.     It  was  content  to  leave  the  half-Greek 


122  X.    The  Province  of  Asia 

or  Graeco-Asiatic  law  and  civilisation  of  Asia  undisturbed. 
But  it  discouraged  the  national  distinctions  and  languages ; 
it  recognised  Greek,  but  not  Phrygian  or  Pisidian  or  Carian  ; 
it  tried  to  make  a  unified  Graeco-Roman  Asia  Provincia 
out  of  that  agglomeration  of  countries.  The  attempt  failed 
ultimately ;  but  it  was  made ;  it  was  the  ruling  feature  of 
administration  in  the  first  century ;  and  the  whole  trend  of 
Roman  feeling  and  loyalty  in  all  the  provinces  of  Asia  Minor 
during  the  first  century  was  in  favour  of  the  Provincial  idea 
and  against  the  old  national  divisions.  The  term  which 
Strabo  uses  to  represent  in  Greek  the  Latin  Asia  Provincia 
expresses  the  true  Roman  point  of  view.  He  speaks  of 
the  Province  as  "  the  nation  Asia  "  :  i.e.^  the  Roman  Province 
took  the  place  of  any  national  divisions  :  loyalty  considered 
that  there  was  only  one  nation  in  Asia,  that  the  Province 
was  the  nation. 

As  time  went  on  and  the  past  pre-Imperial  miseries  were 
forgotten,  the  fervour  of  loyalty,  which  had  for  a  time 
given  some  real  strength  to  the  Imperial  religion,  began 
to  cool  down ;  and  there  was  no  longer  strength  in  it  to 
hold  the  Province  together,  while  there  was  a  growth  in  the 
strength  of  national  feeling,  Polemon  the  Sophist  of  the 
time  of  Hadrian  and  Pius  was  called  "  the  Phrygian,"  be- 
cause he  was  bom  of  a  Laodicean  family  ;  and  when  lonians 
were  using  such  a  nickname,  Phrygians  naturally  began  to 
retort  by  assuming  it  as  a  mark  of  pride.  It  was  Hadrian 
probably  who  saw  that  the  Roman  ideal  was  not  strong 
enough  in  itself  without  support  from  local  and  old  national 
feeling;  and  from  his  time  onwards  the  Imperial  policy 
ceased  to  be  so  hostile  to  the  old  national  distinctions.  He 
did  not  try  to  break  up  the  vast  Roman  Provinces ;  but 
there  are  traces  of  an  attempt  to  recognise  national  divi- 


And  the  Imperial  Religion  123 

sions  :  e.g.,  the  new  Province  of  the  Tres  Eparchiae  was  left 
in  fact  and  name  a  loose  aggregate  of  three  countries, 
Cilicia,  Isauria,  Lycaonia,  which  kept  their  national  names 
and  had  probably  three  distinct  Communes  or  Councils.^ 
The  union  of  Asia  was  already  old  ;  but  he  tried  to 
strengthen  it  in  a  way  characteristic  of  ancient  feeling, 
viz.,  by  giving  it  a  support  in  Anatolian  religion  as  well 
as  in  the  Imperial  religion. 

During  the  first  century  the  State  religion  was  simply 
the  worship  of  the  Emperor  or  of  Rome  and  the  Emperor. 
But  that  was  only  a  sham  religion,  a  matter  of  outward 
show  and  magnificent  ceremonial.  It  was  almost  devoid 
of  power  over  the  heart  and  will  of  man,  when  the  first 
strong  sense  of  relief  from  misery  had  grown  weak,  because 
it  was  utterly  unable  to  satisfy  the  religious  needs  and 
cravings  of  human  nature.  From  a  very  early  time  there 
seems  to  have  existed  in  the  Eastern  Provinces  a  tendency 
to  give  more  reality  to  this  Imperial  religion  by  identify- 
ing the  Divine  Emperor  with  the  local  God,  whatever  form 
the  latter  had  :  thus  the  religious  feelings  and  habits  of 
the  people  in  each  district  were  associated  to  some  extent 
with  the  Imperial  divinity  and  the  State  religion.  Perhaps 
it  was  Domitian  who  first  saw  clearly  that  the  Imperial  re- 
ligion required  to  be  reinforced  by  enlisting  in  its  service 
the  deep-seated  reverence  of  men  for  their  local  God.  In 
the  second  century  the  custom  of  associating  the  Emperor 
with  the  local  deity  in  a  common  religious  ritual  seems  to 
have  spread  much  more  widely,  and  the  old  tendency  to 
make  certain  local  gods  into  gods  of  the  Province  became 
more  marked.  Under  Hadrian  a  silver  coinage  for  the 
whole  of  Asia  was  struck  with  the  types,  not  merely  of  the 
Pergamenian  temple  of  Augustus,  but  also  of  the  Ephesian 


124 


X.    The  Province  of  Asia 


Diana,  the  two  Smyrnaean  goddesses  Nemesis,  the  Sardian 
Persephone,  etc.,  thus  giving  those  deities  a  sort  of  Pro- 
vincial standing.  This  class  of  coins  was  struck  under  the 
authority  of  the  Commune.  But  it  was  in  the  Flavian 
persecution  that  this  approximation  between  the  native  re- 
ligions and  the  Imperial  worship  began  first  to  be  impor- 
tant. This  approximation  put  an  end  to  the  hope,  which 
St.  Paul  had  cherished,  that  the  conquest  of  the  Empire  by 


Fig.  7. — The  Temple  of  Augustus  at  Pergamum :  Coin  of  the  Commune  of 

Asia. 


the  new  faith  might  be  accomplished  peacefully.  It  now 
became  apparent  that  war  was  inevitable,  and  its  first  stage 
was  the  Flavian  perr.ecution. 

In  Asia  the  Ephesian  religion  of  Artemis  was  the  only 
native  cultus  which  had  by  its  own  natural  strength  spread 
widely  through  the  Province.  Before  the  Roman  period 
the  royal  character  of  Pergamum  had  given  strength  to 
its  deities,  especially  Asklepios  the  Saviour  and  Dion}'sos 
the  Guide  (Kathegemon).  The  latter  was  the  royal  God, 
and  the  royal  family  was   regarded  as  sprung  from  him, 


And  the  Imperial  Religion 


"5 


and  the  reigning  king  was  his  representative  and  incarna- 
tion. Asklepios,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the  God  of  the 
city  Pergamum.  Hence  in  several  cities  even  in  distant 
Phrygia  the  worship  of  those  two  deities  was  introduced  ; 
and  after  the  Roman  period  had  begun,  the  respect  felt 
for  the  capital  of  Asia  was  expressed  by  paying  honour 
to  its  god.  This  is  very  characteristic  of  ancient  feeling. 
The  patron  god  is  the  representative  of  his  city,  just  as 


Fig.  8. — Ephesus  and  Sardis  represented  by  their  goddesses. 


the  angel  in  the  Seven  Letters  stands  for  his  Church. 
Municipal  patriotism  was  expressed  by  worshipping  the 
god  of  the  city ;  and  other  parts  of  Asia  recognised  the 
superior  rank  of  Pergamum  by  worshipping  Asklepios  the 
Saviour. 

In  Roman  time,  also,  the  natural  advantages  of  Ephesus 
had  full  play.  Ephesus  was  brought  into  trading  relations 
with  many  cities ;  many  strangers  experienced  the  protec- 
tion and  prayed  for  the  favour  of  the  Ephesian  Goddess. 
Thus,  for  example,  she  is  recognised  alongside  of  the 
native  God  Zeus  and  the  Pergamenian   Asklepios  in  the 


126  X.   The  Province  of  Asia 

last  will  and  testament  of  a  citizen  nf  Akmonia,  dated  A.D. 
94.^  Many  cities  of  xA.sia  ma  le  ac^reements  with  each  other 
for  mutual  recognition  of  their  cults  and  festivals  and  com- 
mon rights  of  all  citizens  of  both  cities  at  the  festivals  ;  and 
such  agreements  were  usually  commemorated  by  striking 
what  are  called  "  alliance- coins,"  on  which  the  patron  deities 
of  the  two  cities  are  represented  side  by  side.  The  custom 
shows  a  certain  tendency  in  Asia  towards  an  amalgamation 
and  fusing  of  local  religions  ;  and  Ephesus  concluded  more 
•'  alliances  "  of  this  kind  than  any  other  city  of  Asia.  Hence 
in  AD.  56  the  une  lucated  devotees  of  Artemis  of  Ephesus 
spoke  of  their  Goddess,  "  whom  all  Asia  and  the  civilised 
world  tvorsJiippeth  ". 

The  machinery  of  Roman  government  in  the  Province 
— the  Proconsul  (who  resided  mostly  in  the  official  capital, 
though  he  landed  and  embarked  at  Ephesus  and  often 
made  a  progress  through  the  important  cities  of  the  Pro- 
vince) and  oiher  officers — does  not  directly  affect  the  Seven 
Letters,  and  need  not  detain  us. 

More  important  is  the  Provincial  religious  organisation, 
directed  by  the  Commune.  The  one  original  temple  of  the 
Asian  cultus  at  Pergamum  was  soon  found  insufficient  to 
satisfy  the  demonstrative  loyalty  of  the  Asians.  Moreover, 
the  jealous  rivalry  of  other  great  cities  made  tiiem  seek  for 
similar  distinctions.  Asian  temples  were  built  in  Smyrna 
(Tiberius),  Ephesus,  Sardis,  etc.  Each  temple  was  a  meet- 
ing-place of  the  Commune  ;  and  where  the  Commune  met, 
games  "common  to  Asia"  weie  celebrated  (such  as  those, 
at  which  Polycarp  suffered  in  Smyrna).  The  Commune 
was  essentially  a  body  charged  with  religious  duties,  but 
religion  was  closely  interwoven  with  civil  affairs,  and  the 
Commune  had  other  work :    it  had  control  of  certain  re- 


And  the  Imperial  Religion  127 

venues,  and  must  therefore  have  had  an  annual  budget,  it 
struck  coins,  etc. 

The  most  interesting  side  of  Imperial  history  is  the 
growth  of  ideas,  which  have  been  more  fully  developed 
later.  Universal  citizenship,  universal  religion,  a  universal 
Church,  were  ideas  which  the  Empire  was  slowly,  some- 
times quite  unconsciously,  working  out  or  preparing  forj 
The  Commune  contained  the  germ  on  one  side  of  a  Par- 
liament of  representatives,  on  another  side  of  a  religious 
hierarchy. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  CITIES  OF  ASIA  AS  MEETING-PLACES  OF  THE  GREEK 
AND  THE  ASIATIC  SPIRIT. 

The  marked  and  peculiar  character  of  the  society  and 
population  of  the  great  Asian  cities,  amid  which  the  local 
Churches  were  built  up,  is  present  in  the  writer's  mind 
throughout  the  Seven  Letters  ;  and  it  is  necessary  to  form 
some  conception  of  this  subject.  Disregarding  differences, 
we  shall  try  to  describe  briefly  the  chief  forces  which  had 
been  at  work  in  those  cities  during  the  last  three  centu- 
ries, and  the  prominent  features  that  were  common  to  them 
all  about  A.D.  90.  Some  of  them  were  ancient  Greek  col- 
onies, like  Smyrna  and  Ephesus,  some  were  old  Anatolian 
cities,  like  Pergamum  and  Sardis  ;  but  all  these  had  re- 
cently experienced  great  changes,  and  many  new  cities, 
like  Laodicea,  Philadelphia,  Thyatira,  had  been  founded 
by  the  kings. 

The  successors  of  Alexander  the  Great  were  Greek  kings, 
ruling  Oriental  lands  and  peoples.  To  maintain  their  hold 
on  their  dominions  it  was  necessary  to  build  up  a  suitable 
organisation  in  the  countries  over  which  they  ruled.  Their 
method  everywhere  was  similar :  it  was  to  make  cities  that 
should  be  at  once  garrisons  to  dominate  the  country  and 
centres  of  Graeco-Asiatic  manners  and  education,  which 
the  kings  were  desirous  of  spreading  among  their  Oriental 
subjects.     The  rather  pedantic  adjective  Graeco-Asiatic  is 

(128) 


Meeting  of  Greek  and  Asiatic  129 

used  to  describe  the  form  which  Greek  civilisation  was 
forced  to  assume,  as  it  attempted  to  establish  itself  in 
Oriental  lands :  it  did  not  merely  change  the  cities,  it  was 
itself  much  altered  in  the  attempt.  Sometimes  those  kings 
founded  new  cities,  where  previously  there  seem  to  have 
been  only  villages.  Sometimes  they  introduced  an  acces- 
sion of  population  and  change  of  constitution  in  already 
existing  cities,  a  process  which  may  be  described  as  re- 
founding.  In  both  cases  alike  a  new  name,  connected 
with  the  dynasty,  was  almost  invariably  substituted  for 
the  previous  name  of  the  village  or  city,  though  in  many 
cases  the  old  name  soon  revived,  e.g.^  in  Ephesus  and  in 
Tarsus.  Commonest  among  them  were  the  Seleucid  names 
Antioch  and  Laodicea,  and  the  Macedonian  Alexandria. 

The  new  population  consisted  generally  of  colonists 
brought  from  foreign  countries,  who  were  considered  in- 
truders and  naturally  not  much  liked  by  the  older  popula- 
tion. The  colonists  were  granted  property  and  privileges 
in  their  new  cities  ;  and  they  knew  that  the  continuance 
of  their  fortunes  and  rights  depended  on  the  permanence  of 
the  royal  government  which  had  introduced  them.  Thus 
those  strangers  constituted  a  loyal  garrison  in  every  city 
where  they  had  been  planted.  With  them  were  associated 
in  loyalty  the  whole  party  that  favoured  the  royal  policy, 
or  hoped  to  profit  by  it.  It  would  appear  that  these  con- 
stituted a  powerful  combination  in  the  cities.  They  were 
in  general  the  active,  energetic,  and  dominating  party. 

How  important  in  the  New  Testament  writings  those 
Asian  foundations  of  the  Greek  kings  were,  is  brought  out 
very  clearly  by  a  glance  over  the  list  of  cities.  Laodicea 
and  Thyatira  were  founded  or  refounded  by  Seleucid  kings : 
the  Ionian  Greek  cities  in  general  were  profoundly  modified 


130  XI.    The  Cities  of  Asia 

by  them.  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Troas,  Pergamum  and  Phila- 
delphia were  refounded  by  other  Greek  kings  in  the  same 
period  and  under  similar  circumstances. 

Two  classes  of  settlers  were  specially  required  and  en- 
couraged in  the  Seleucid  colonies.  In  the  first  place,  of 
course,  soldiers  were  needed.  These  were  found  chiefly 
among  the  mercenaries  of  many  nations — but  mostly  of 
northern  race,  Macedonians,  Thracians,^  etc. — who  made  up 
the  strength  of  the  Seleucid  armies.  The  harsh,  illiterate, 
selfish,  domineering  tone  of  those  soldier-citizens  was  often 
satirised  by  the  Greek  writers  of  the  third  and  second 
centuries  before  Christ,  who  delighted  to  paint  them  as 
braggarts,  cowards  at  heart,  boasting  of  false  exploits  ;  and 
the  boastful  soldier,  the  creation  of  Greek  wit  and  malice, 
has  been  perpetuated  since  that  time  on  the  Roman  and  the 
Elizabethan  stage  in  traits  essentially  the  same. 

But  the  Greek  kings  knew  well  that  soldiers  alone  were 
not  enough  to  establish  their  cities  on  a  permanent  basis. 
Other  colonists  were  needed,  able  to  manage,  to  lead,  to  train 
the  rude  Oriental  peasantry  in  the  arts  on  which  civilised 
life  must  rest,  to  organise  and  utilise  their  labour  and  create 
a  commercial  system.  The  experience  of  the  present  day 
in  the  cities  of  the  east  Mediterranean  lands  shows  where 
such  colonists  could  best  be  found.  They  were  Greeks  and 
Jews.  Nowadays  Armenians  also  would  be  available ;  but 
at  that  time  Armenia  had  hardly  come  within  reach  of  even 
the  most  elementary  civilisation.  Only  among  the  Greeks 
and  the  Jews  was  there  that  familiarity  with  ideals,  that 
power  and  habit  of  thinking  for  themselves  and  of  working 
for  a  future  and  remote  end,  which  the  kings  needed  in 
their  colonists.  Modern  students  do  not  as  a  rule  conceive 
the  Jews  as  an  educated  race,  and  some  can  hardly  find 


Meeting  of  Greek  and  Asiatic  131 

language  strong  enough  to  describe  their  narrowness  and 
deadness  of  intellect.  But  when  compared  with  the  races 
that  surrounded  them,  the  Greeks  excepted,  the  Jews  stood 
on  a  far  higher  intellectual  platform  :  they  knew  one  book 
(or,  rather,  one  collection  of  books)  well,  and  it  was  a  liberal 
education  to  them. 

One  might  hardly  expect  to  find  that  the  Greeks  were 
loyal  subjects  of  Seleucid  kings.  They  were  apt  to  be 
democratic  and  unruly ;  but  it  is  as  true  of  ancient  as  it 
is  of  modern  times  that  the  Greeks  are  "  better  and  more 
prosperous  under  almost  any  other  government  than  they 
are  under  their  own".^  They  accommodated  themselves 
with  their  usual  dexterity  and  pliancy  to  their  position ; 
and  circumstances,  as  we  have  seen,  made  them  dependent 
on  the  kings.  The  stagnant  and  unprogressive  Oriental 
party  looked  askance  at  and  disliked  the  Greek  element ; 
and  the  latter  must  regard  the  kings  as  their  champions, 
even  though  the  Seleucid  kings  were  far  too  autocratic  and 
too  strongly  tinged  with  the  Oriental  fashions  for  the  Greek 
colonists  to  feel  in  thorough  sympathy  with  them.  But 
settlers  and  kings  alike  had  the  common  interest  that 
they  must  dominate  the  uneducated  mass  of  the  ancient 
population.  Thus  the  constitution  of  the  new  cities  was  a 
compromise,  a  sort  of  limited  monarchy,  where  democratic 
freedom  and  autocratic  rule  tempered  and  restrained  each 
other ;  and  the  result  was  distinctly  favourable  to  the 
development  and  prosperity  of  the  cities. 

It  may  seem  even  stranger  that  the  Jews  should  be  found 
by  Seleucid  kings  their  best  and  most  loyal  subjects  out- 
side of  Palestine,  for  those  kings  were  considered  by  the 
Jews  of  Palestine  to  be  the  most  deadly  enemies  of  their 
race  and  religion.     But  the  Jew  outside  of  Palestine  was  a 


132  XI.    The  Cities  of  Asia 

different  person  and  differently  situated  from  the  Jew  in 
his  own  land.  Abroad  he  was  resigned  to  accept  the 
government  of  the  land  in  which  he  lived,  and  to  make 
the  best  of  it ;  and  he  found  that  loyalty  was  by  far  the 
best  policy.  He  could  be  useful  to  the  government ;  and 
the  government  was  eager  to  profit  by  and  ready  to  reward 
his  loyalty.  Thus  their  interests  were  identical.  More- 
over, the  Jewish  colonies  planted  by  the  Seleucid  kings  in 
Asia  Minor  and  Cilicia  were  all  older  than  the  Maccabaean 
rising,  when  the  Jewish  hatred  for  the  Seleucid  kings  came 
to  a  head. 

Their  moral  scruples  divided  the  Jews  from  their  neigh- 
bours in  the  cities,  and  thereby  made  them  all  the  more 
sensible  of  the  fact  that  it  was  the  royal  favour  which  main- 
tained them  safe  and  privileged  in  the  places  where  they 
lived  as  citizens.  In  Palestine  their  ritual  kept  the  Jews 
aloof  from  and  hostile  to  the  Seleucid  kings  and  fed  their 
national  aspirations.  But  in  the  Graeco-Asiatic  cities  their 
ritual  actually  bound  them  more  closely  to  the  king's  service. 

Through  similar  causes,  at  a  later  time,  the  Jews  in 
Palestine  hated  the  Roman  government  and  regarded  it  as 
the  abominable  thing,  and  they  were  subdued  only  after 
many  rebellions  and  the  most  stubborn  resistance.  And 
yet,  through  that  troubled  period,  the  Jews  outside  Pales- 
tine were  loyal  subjects  of  the  Empire,  distinguished  by 
their  special  attachment  to  the  side  of  the  Emperors  against 
the  old  Roman  republican  party. 

Moreover,  the  Jews,  an  essentially  Oriental  race,  found 
the  strong  Oriental  tinge  in  the  policy  of  the  Seleucid 
kings  far  more  congenial  to  them  than  the  Greek  colonists 
could  do.  The  "  grave  Hebrew  trader,"  if  one  may  imitate 
the  words  of  Matthew  Arnold,  was  by  nature  essentially 


Meeting  of  Greek  and  Asiatic  133 

opposed  to  "the  young,  light-hearted  master  of  the  wave' . 
Hence  the  Jewish  settlers  formed  a  counterpoise  against 
the  Greek  colonists  in  the  Seleucid  cities,  and,  wherever 
the  Greek  element  seemed  too  strong,  the  natural  policy 
of  the  kings  was  to  plant  Jews  in  the  same  city. 

That  remarkable  shifting  and  mixing  of  races  was,  of 
course,  not  produced  simply  by  arbitrary  acts  of  the  Greek 
kings,  violently  transporting  population  hither  and  thither 
at  their  caprice.  The  royal  policy  was  successful,  because 
it  was  in  accordance  with  the  tendencies  of  the  time  as  de- 
scribed in  chapter  i.  The  Graeco-Asiatic  cities  between 
300  and  100  B.C.  were  in  process  of  natural  growth  through 
the  settling  in  them  of  strangers  ;  and  the  strangers  came 
for  purposes  of  trade,  eager  to  make  money.  The  kings 
interfered  only  to  regulate  and  to  direct  to  their  own  ad- 
vantage a  process  which  they  had  not  originated  and  could 
not  have  prevented.  What  they  did  for  those  strangers 
was  to  give  them  the  fullest  rights  in  the  cities  where  they 
settled.  The  strangers  and  their  descendants  would  have 
always  remained  aliens ;  but  the  kings  made  them  citizens,' 
gave  them  a  voice  in  the  government  and  a  position  in  the 
city  as  firm  and  influential  as  that  of  the  best,  increased 
their  numbers  by  assisting  immigrants,  and  presented  them 
with  lands. 

Even  the  Jews,  though  introduced  specially  by  the 
Seleucid  kings,  and  always  most  numerous  in  the  Seleucid 
colonies,  were  spread  throughout  the  great  cities  of  the 
Greek  world,  and  especially  in  the  chief  centres  of  trade 
and  finance  (as  might  be  expected). 

The  result  of  that  free  mixture  of  races  in  the  Grasco- 
Asiatic  cities  was  to  stimulate  a  rapid  and  precocious 
development.     There   was   great   ease  of  intercourse  and 


134  ^I-    1^^^  Cities  of  Asia 

freedom  of  trade,  a  settled  and  sound  coinage  and  mone- 
tary system,  much  commerce  on  a  considerable  scale,  much 
eagerness  and  opportunity  to  make  money  by  large  financial 
operations.  There  was  also  a  notable  development  on  the 
intellectual  side.  Curiosity  was  stimulated  in  the  meeting 
of  such  diverse  races.  The  Oriental  came  into  relations 
with  the  European  spirit :  each  tried  to  understand  and  to 
outwit  the  other. 

Thus  an  amalgamation  of  Oriental  and  European  races 
and  intellect,  manners  and  law,  was  being  worked  out 
practically  in  the  collision  and  competition  of  such  diverse 
elements.  It  was  an  experiment  in  a  direction  that  is  often 
theorised  about  and  discussed  at  the  present  day.  Can  the 
east  take  on  the  western  character?  Can  the  Asiatic  be 
made  like  a  European  ?  In  one  sense  that  is  impossible : 
in  another  sense  it  was  done  in  the  Graeco-Asiatic  cities, 
and  can  be  done  again.  It  was  done  in  them,  not  by 
Europeanising  the  Asiatic,  but  by  profoundly  modifying 
both  ;  each  learned  from  the  other ;  and  that  is  the  only 
treatment  of  the  problem  that  can  ever  be  successful. 

This  great  experiment  in  human  development  was  con- 
ducted on  a  small  scale  and  in  a  thin  soil,  but  was  all 
the  more  precocious  on  that  account,  and  also  the  more 
short-lived.  It  was  a  hot-house  growth,  produced  in  cir- 
cumstances which  were  evanescent ;  and  it  was  unnatural 
and  unhealthy. 

The  smallness  of  scale  on  which  all  Greek  history  was 
conducted  is  one  of  its  most  remarkable  features.  In  Greece 
proper,  as  contrasted  with  the  big  countries  and  the  large 
masses  of  modern  nations,  the  scale  was  quite  minute.  In 
the  Graeco-Asiatic  States  the  scale  seemed  much  greater; 
but  development  was  really  confined  to  a  number  of  spots 


Meeting  of  Greek  and  Asiatic  135 

here  and  there,  showing  only  as  dots  on  a  map,  small  islets 
in  the  great  sea  of  stagnant,  unruffled,  immovable  Oriental- 
ism. The  Greek  political  and  social  system  demanded  a 
small  city  as  its  scene,  and  broke  down  when  the  attempt 
was  made  to  apply  it  on  a  larger  scale.  But  no  more 
stimulating  environment  to  the  intellect  could  be  found  than 
was  offered  in  the  Graeco-Asiatic  cities,  and  the  scanty 
glimpses  which  we  get  into  the  life  of  those  cities  reveal  to 
us  a  very  quick,  restless,  intelligent  society,  keenly  interested 
in  a  rather  empty  and  shallow  kind  of  philosophic  specula- 
tion, and  almost  utterly  destitute  of  any  vivifying  and  in- 
vigorating ideal. 

The  interest  and  importance  to  us  of  this  moment  in 
society  lies  in  the  fact  that  Pauline  Christianity  arose  in  it 
and  worked  upon  it.  In  every  page  of  Paul's  writings  that 
restless,  self-conceited,  morbid,  unhealthy  society  stands  out 
in  strong  relief  before  the  reader.  He  knew  it  so  well, 
because  he  was  born  and  brought  up  in  its  midst.  He  con- 
ceived that  his  mission  was  to  regenerate  it,  and  the  plan 
which  he  saw  to  be  the  only  possible  one  was  to  save  the 
Jew  from  sinking  down  to  the  pagan  level  by  elevating  the 
pagan  to  the  true  Jewish  level.*  The  writer  of  the  Seven 
Letters  also,  though  a  Jew  from  Palestine,  had  learned  to 
know  the  Asian  cities  by  long  residence. 

The  noblest  feature  of  Greek  city  life  was  its  zeal  and 
provision  for  education.  The  minute  carefulness  with  which 
those  Asian-Greek  cities  legislated  and  provided  for  educa- 
tion— watching  over  the  young,  keeping  them  from  evil, 
graduating  their  physical  and  mental  training  to  suit 
their  age,  moving  them  on  from  stage  to  stage — rouses  the 
deepest  admiration  in  the  scholar  who  laboriously  spells  out 
and  completes  the  records  on  the  broken  stones  on  which 


136  XI.   The  Cities  of  Asia 

they  are  written,  and  at  the  same  time  convinces  him  how 
vain  is  mere  law  to  produce  any  healthy  education.  It  is 
pathetic  to  think  how  poor  was  the  result  of  all  those  wise 
and  beautiful  provisions. 

The  literature  of  the  age  has  almost  utterly  perished ; 
but  the  extremely  scanty  remains,  along  with  the  Roman 
imitations  of  it,  do  not  suggest  that  there  was  anything 
really  great  in  it,  though  much  cleverness,  brilliance,  and 
sentimentality.  Perhaps  Theocritus,  who  comes  at  the 
beginning  of  the  age,  might  rank  higher ;  but  the  great 
master  of  bucolic  poetry,  the  least  natural  form  of  poetic 
art,  can  hardly  escape  the  charge  of  artificiality  and  senti- 
mentality. In  the  realm  of  creative  literature,  the  spirit 
of  the  age  is  to  be  compared  with  that  of  the  Restoration 
in  England,  and  partakes  of  the  same  deep-seated  im- 
morality. 

The  age  was  devoted  to  learning  :  it  investigated  antiqui- 
ties, studied  the  works  of  older  Greek  writers,  commented 
on  texts  ;  and  the  character  of  the  time,  in  its  poorness  of 
fibre  and  shallowness  of  method,  is  most  clearly  revealed 
in  this  department.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  find  any  trace 
of  insight  or  true  knowledge  in  the  fragments  of  this  branch 
of  literature  that  have  come  down  to  us.  Athenodorus  of 
Tarsus  was  in  many  respects  a  man  of  ability,  courage, 
education,  high  ideas  and  practical  sense  ;  but  take  a  speci- 
men of  his  history  of  his  own  city :  "  Anchiale,  daughter  of 
Japetos,  founded  Anchiale  (a  city  near  Tarsus) :  her  son 
was  Cydnus,  who  gave  his  name  to  the  river  at  Tarsus :  the 
son  of  Cydnus  was  Parthenius,  from  whom  the  city  was 
called  Farthenia :  afterwards  the  name  was  changed  to 
Tarsus".  This  habit  of  substituting  irrational  ^'■fables  and 
endless  genealogies''  (i  Tim.  i.  4)  for  the  attempt  really  to 


Meeting  of  Greek  and  Asiatic  137 

understand  nature  and  history  was  engrained  in  the  spirit 
of  the  time,  and  shows  how  superficial  and  unintelligent 
its  learning  was.  Out  of  it  could  come  no  real  advance 
in  knowledge,  but  only  frivolous  argumentation  and  "  ques- 
tionings" (i  Tim.  i.  4). 

Only  in  the  department  of  moral  philosophy  did  the 
age  sometimes  reach  a  lofty  level.  A  touch  of  Oriental 
sympathy  with  the  Divine  nature  enabled  Athenodorus  and 
others  to  express  themselves  with  singular  dignity  and 
beauty  on  the  duty  of  man  and  his  relation  to  God.  But 
the  ^^ endless  genealogies^^  frequently  obtruded  themselves 
in  their  finest  speculations. 

The  Christian  letters  need  to  be  constantly  illustrated  from 
the  life  of  those  cities,  and  to  be  always  read  in  the  light  of 
a  careful  study  of  the  society  in  them.  It  was,  above  all, 
the  philosophical  speculation  in  which  they  excelled  and 
delighted  that  Paul  detested.  He  saw  serious  danger  in  it. 
Not  only  was  it  useless  and  resultless  in  itself,  mere  "  empty 
deceit "  (Col.  ii.  8),  but,  far  worse,  it  led  directly  to  super- 
stition. Vain  speculation,  unable  to  support  itself  in  its 
lofty  flight,  unable  to  comprehend  the  real  unity  of  the 
world  in  God,  invented  for  itself  silly  genealogies  (i  Tim. 
i.  4),  in  which  nature  and  creation  were  explained  under 
the  empty  fiction  of  sonship,  and  a  chain  of  divine  beings 
in  successive  generations  was  made  and  worshipped  ;  and 
human  nature  was  humbly  made  subservient  to  these  ficti- 
tious beings,  who  were  described  as  "  angels  "  (Col.  ii.  18  fif.). 

This  philosophical  speculation  cannot  be  properly  con- 
ceived in  its  historical  development  without  bearing  in  mind 
the  mixed  population  and  the  collision  of  Jewish  and  Greek 
thought  which  belonged  to  those  great  Graeco-Asiatic  cities. 
It  united  Greek  and  Jewish  elements  in  arbitrary  eclectic 


138  XI.   The  Cities  of  Asia 

systems.  The  mixture  of  Greek  and  Jewish  thought  is  far 
more  conspicuous  in  Asia  Minor  than  in  Europe.  Hence 
there  is  not  much  trace  of  it  in  the  Corinthian  letters 
(though  some  writers  try  to  discover  it,  and  lay  exagger- 
ated stress  on  it)  :  the  Corinthian  philosophers  were  of  a 
different  kind.  But  in  the  cities  of  Asia,  Phrygia,  South 
Galatia,  and  Cilicia — all  along  the  great  roads  leading  east 
and  west  across  Asia  Minor — the  minds  of  men  were  filled 
with  crude  attempts  at  harmonising  and  mingling  Oriental 
(especially  Jewish)  and  Greek  ideas.  Their  attempts  took 
many  shapes,  from  mere  vulgar  magical  formulas  and  arts 
to  the  serious  and  lofty  morality  of  Athenodorus  the  Tarsian 
in  his  highest  moments  of  philosophy. 

When  we  think  of  the  intellectual  skill,  the  philosophic 
interest,  and  the  extreme  cleverness  of  the  age,  we  feel  the 
inadequacy  of  those  arguments — or  rather  those  unargued 
assertions — according  to  which  the  Epistle  to  the  Colos- 
sians  reveals  a  stage  of  philosophic  speculation,  as  applied 
to  Christian  doctrines,  so  advanced  that  it  could  not  have 
been  reached  earlier  than  the  second  century.  How  long 
would  it  take  those  clever  and  subtle  philosophic  inquirers 
in  those  cities  to  achieve  the  slight  feat  of  intellectual 
gymnastic  presupposed  in  the  Epistle? 

Such  then  was  the  motley  population  of  the  numerous 
Seleucid  colonies  which  were  planted  in  Lydia,  Phrygia, 
Pisidia,  and  Lycaonia  during  the  third  century,  and  in 
Cilicia  during  the  second  century  B.C.  The  language  of 
the  settlers  was  Greek,  the  language  of  trade  and  educa- 
tion; and  it  was  through  these  cities  that  a  veneer  of 
Greek  civilisation  was  spread  over  the  Asiatic  coasts. 

The  jealousies  and  rivalries  of  those  great  cities  are  a 
quaint  feature  of  their  history  in  the  Roman  period.     The 


Meeting  of  Greek  and  Asiatic  139 

old  Greek  pride  in  their  patris,  their  father-land — which  to 
them  was  simply  their  city — had  no  longer  the  opportunity 
of  expressing  itself  in  the  field  of  politics.  No  city  could 
have  a  foreign  policy.  Even  in  municipal  matters,  while 
the  Empire  nominally  allowed  home  rule,  yet  in  practice 
it  discouraged  it :  the  management  of  city  business  was 
more  and  more  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the  cities :  the 
Emperor  was  there  to  think  for  all  and  provide  for  all 
better  than  they  could  for  themselves.      Municipal  pride 


Fig.  9. — Sardis  the  First  Metropolis  of  Asia,  of  Lydia,  and  of  Hellenism. 

expressed  itself  in  outward  show,  partly  in  the  healthier 
direction  of  improving  and  beautifying  the  cities,  partly 
in  the  vainglorious  invention  of  names  and  titles.  In  every 
Province  and  district  there  was  keen  competition  for  the 
title  first  of  the  Province  or  the  district.  Every  city  which 
could  pretend  to  the  first  place  in  respect  of  any  qualifi- 
cation called  itself  "  first,"  and  roused  the  jealousy  of  other 
cities  which  counted  themselves  equally  good.  Smyrna 
was  "  first  of  Asia  in  size  and  beauty,"  Ephesus  first  of  Asia 
as  the  landing-place  of  every  Roman  official,  Pergamum 


140  XI.   The  Cities  of  Asia 

first  as  the  official  capital,  and  Sardis  boldly  styled  itself 
**  first  metropolis  of  Asia,  of  Lydia,  of  Hellenism  "  on  the 
arrogant  coin  represented  in  Fig.  9,  p.  139.  Similarly  in 
the  Province  Bithynia  Nicomedia  and  Nicaea  competed  for 
the  primacy.  So  again  in  Cilicia  Tarsus  and  Anazarba,  in 
one  district  of  Macedonia  Philippi  and  Amphipolis  (see 
p.  181),  disputed  with  one  another  about  those  empty  titles. 
A  temporary  agreement  between  the  three  chief  cities  of 
Asia,  implying  a  lull  in  their  rivalry,  is  attested  by  the 
coin  shown  in  Fig.   10,  p.   174. 

The  prosperity,  both  material  and  intellectual,  of  the 
cities  was  very  great  under  the  kings.  As  the  dynasties 
decayed,  the  Romans  took  over  their  power,  and  during 
the  disintegration  of  the  Roman  Republic  and  the  long 
Civil  Wars  the  cities  suffered  severely  from  misgovernment 
and  extortion.  But  prosperity  was  restored  by  the  triumph 
of  the  new  Empire,  which  was  welcomed  with  the  utmost 
enthusiasm  by  the  Graeco-Asiatic  cities.  The  Roman 
Empire  did  not,  as  a  rule,  need  to  found  cities  and  intro- 
duce new  population  in  order  to  maintain  its  hold  on  Asia 
Minor.  It  stood  firmly  supported  by  the  loyalty  of  the 
city  population.  Only  on  the  South-Galatian  frontier  was 
a  line  of  Colonics — Antioch,  Lystra,  etc. — needed  to  pro- 
tect the  loyal  cities  from  the  unsubdued  tribes  of  Mount 
Taurus.  The  two  Roman  Colonics  in  Asia,  Troas  and 
Parium,  were  founded  for  sentimental  and  economic  rea- 
sons, not  to  hold  a  doubtful  land. 

But  the  history  of  those  cities,  and  the  letters  of  the  New 
Testament,  show  that  a  very  high  degree  of  order,  peace 
and  prosperity  may  result  in  a  thoroughly  unhealthy  life 
and  a  steady  moral  deterioration,  unless  the  condition  of 
the  public  mind  is  kept  sound  by  some  salutary  idea.     The 


Meeting  of  Greek  and  Asiatic  141 

salutary  idea  which  was  needed  to  keep  the  Empire  sound 
and  the  cities  healthy  was  what  Paul  preached  ;  and  that 
idea  was  the  raising  of  the  Gentiles  to  equality  with  the 
Jews  in  religion  and  morality. 

An  amalgamation  of  Oriental  and  Hellenic  religious 
ideas  had  been  sought  by  many  philosophers,  and  was 
practised  in  debased  forms  by  impostors  who  traded  on 
the  superstitions  of  the  vulgar.  It  was  left  for  Christianity 
to  place  it  before  the  world  accomplished  and  perfected. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  JEWS  IN  THE  ASIAN  CITIES.* 

In  chapter  xi.  we  recognised  how  important  an  element 
the  Jewish  colonists  were  in  the  cities  which  the  Seleucid 
kings  founded  or  re-founded  as  strongholds  of  their  power, 
and  as  centres  of  the  Graeco-Asiatic  civilisation  amid  the 
dreary  ocean  of  Oriental  monotony  ;  and  we  also  saw  what 
were  the  reasons  which  made  them  trusty  supporters  of  t'he 
Seleucid  regime  and  specially  useful  to  counterbalance  the 
Greek  element  in  those  cities,  all  the  more  trusty  and 
useful  because  they  were  unpopular,  and  even  hated  by 
their  fellow-citizens. 

Considering  how  important  a  part  the  Jewish  Christians 
must  have  played  in  the  Asian  Churches  (Acts  xviii.  20, 
xix.  1-8,  XX.  21),  it  is  necessary  to  examine  their  position 
in  the  cities  more  closely.^  The  point  of  view  taken  in  the 
Apocalypse  is  that  the  Christians  were  the  true  Jews  (just 
as  they  constitute  the  real  element  in  the  city  where  they 
dwell,  see  p.  41  f.),  and  the  national  Jews  who  clung  to  the 
old  Hebrew  ideas  were  not  the  true  Jews  but  merely  the 
synagogue  of  Satan.  The  Palestinian  Jew  who  could  ex- 
press such  a  view  had  travelled  far  along  the  Pauline  path 
of  development. 

The  Jews  were  too  clever  for  their  fellow-townsmen. 
They  regarded  with  supreme  contempt  the  gross  obscene 
ritual  and  the  vulgar  superstitions  of  their  neighbours  ;  but 

(142) 


The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities  143 

many  of  them  were  ready  to  turn  those  superstitions  to 
their  own  profit ;  and  a  species  of  magic  and  soothsaying, 
a  sort  of  syncretism  of  Hebrew  and  pagan  religious  ideas, 
afforded  a  popular  and  lucrative  occupation  to  the  sons  of 
Sceva  in  Ephesus  and  to  many  another  Jew  throughout 
the  Asiatic  Greek  cities.  It  was  probably  an  art  of  this 
kind  that  was  practised  in  the  Chaldoean's  holy  precinct 
at  Thyatira,  which  is  mentioned  in  an  inscription  of  the 
Roman  period  (p.  323). 

There  were  among  those  Jews,  of  course,  persons  of  every 
moral  class,  from  the  destined  prophet,  Saul  of  Tarsus, 
whose  eyes  were  fixed  on  the  spiritual  future  of  his  people, 
down  to  the  lowest  Jew  who  traded  on  the  superstitions 
and  vices  of  those  pagan  dogs  whom  he  despised  and 
abhorred,  while  he  ministered  to  the  excesses  from  which 
in  his  own  person  he  held  aloof  But  among  them  all  there 
was,  in  contrast  to  the  pagan  population  around  them,  a 
certain  unity  of  feeling  and  aspiration  bred  in  them  by  their 
religion,  their  holy  books,  the  Sabbath  meetings  and  the 
weekly  lessons  and  exhortations,  the  home  training  and 
the  annual  family  meal  of  the  Passover.  These  made  an 
environment  which  exercised  a  strong  influence  even  on 
the  most  unworthy. 

Of  their  numbers  we  can  form  no  estimate,  but  they  were 
very  great.  In  preparing  for  the  final  struggle  in  western 
Asia  Minor  about  210  B.C.,  Antiochus  III.  moved  2,000 
Jewish  families  from  Babylonia  into  Lydia  and  Phrygia, 
and  that  was  a  single  act  of  one  king,  whose  predecessors 
and  successors  carried  out  the  same  policy  on  a  similar 
scale.  The  statistics  which  Cicero  gives,  when  he  describes 
how  a  Roman  Governor  in  66  B.C.  arrested  the  half-shekel 
tribute  which  the  Jews  sent  to  Jerusalem,  show  a  very  large 


144         -^I^-   The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities 

Jewish  population  in  Phrygia  and  a  large  Jewish  population 
in  Lydia. 

Except  in  a  few  such  references  history  is  silent  about 
that  great  Jewish  population  of  Asia  Minor.  But  inscrip- 
tions are  now  slowly  revealing,  by  here  a  trace  and  there  a 
trace,  that  nobles  and  officers  under  the  Roman  Empire 
who  have  all  the  outward  appearance  of  ordinary  Roman 
provincial  citizens  were  really  part  of  the  Phrygian  Jewish 
population.^  The  original  Jews  of  Asia  Minor  seem  to 
have  perished  entirely,  for  the  Turkish  Jews  of  the  present 
day  are  Spanish-speaking  Jews,  whose  ancestors  were  ex- 
pelled from  Spain  by  the  most  famous  of  Spanish  sovereigns 
and  sheltered  in  Turkey  by  Mohammedan  Sultans.  In  the 
dearth  of  evidence  one  can  only  speculate  as  to  their  fate. 
Reasons  have  elsewhere  been  stated  showing  ^  that  a  con- 
siderable part  of  that  original  Jewish  population  adopted 
Christianity,  and  thus  lost  their  isolation  and  cohesion,  and 
became  merged  in  the  Christian  Empire  of  the  fourth  and 
following  centuries  after  Christ. 

As  to  those  Jews,  very  many  in  number,  who  clung  un- 
falteringly to  their  own  faith,  what  was  likely  to  be  their 
fate  in  the  Christian  Empire  ?  The  Eastern  Empire  was 
largely  Greek  in  language  and  in  spirit  alike ;  and  any  one 
who  has  become  familiar  with  the  intensity  and  bitterness 
of  the  hatred  that  separates  the  Greek  from  the  Jew,  will 
recognise  that  in  general  the  alternative  of  extermination 
or  expulsion  was  presented  to  them.  There  was  no  place 
and  no  mercy  for  the  Jew  in  the  Greek  Christian  Empire. 
The  barbarous  lands  of  Europe  and  the  steppes  and  villages 
of  Russia  were  a  gentler  home  to  them  than  the  most  civil- 
ised of  lands. 

When  one  thinks  of  the  character  of  the  Hellenic  cities, 


The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities  145 

one  must  ask  how  and  on  what  conditions  the  Tews  were 
able  to  live  in  them. 

When  the  Jews  were  present  in  such  a  city  merely  as 
resident  aliens,  their  position  is  easier  to  understand.  It 
was  quite  usual  for  strangers  to  reside  in  a  Greek  city  for 
purposes  of  trade,  and  even  to  become  permanent  inhabi- 
tants with  their  families.  But,  as  has  been  already  pointed 
out,  there  was  no  ordinary  way  by  which  such  inhabitants 
could  attain  the  citzenship.  They  and  their  descendants 
continued  to  rank  only  as  resident  aliens.  It  was  easy 
for  them  to  retain  and  practise  their  own  religious  rites. 
Strangers  naturally  brought  their  religion  with  them  ;  and 
their  regular  custom  was  to  form  an  association  among 
themselves  for  the  common  practice  of  their  own  rites. 
Such  religious  associations  were  numerous  and  recognised 
by  law  and  custom  ;  and  Jewish  residents  could  carry  their 
religion  with  them  under  this  legal  form. 

It  was  in  this  way  as  a  rule  that  foreign  religions  spread 
in  the  Greek  cities.  The  foreign  Asiatic  rites,  by  their 
more  impressive  and  enthusiastic  character,  attracted  de- 
votees, especially  among  the  humbler  and  less  educated 
Greeks.  Thus  Oriental  cults  spread  in  such  cities  as 
Corinth,  Athens,  and  other  trading  centres,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  those  pagan  cults  were  essentially  non-proselytis- 
ing, and  preferred  to  keep  their  bounds  narrow  and  to 
restrict  the  advantages  of  their  religion  to  a  small  number. 

Similarly  the  Jewish  association,  with  its  synagogue  or 
place  of  prayer  by  sea-shore  or  river  bank,^  attracted  at- 
tention and  proselytes,  though  it  repelled  and  roused  the 
hatred  of  the  majority,  because  it  was  "so  strange  and 
mysterious  and  incomprehensible  to  the  ordinary  pagan, 
with  its  proud  isolation,  its  lofty  morality,  its  superiority 


146        XII.   The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities 

to  pagan  ideas  of  life,  its  unhesitating  confidence  in  its 
superiority".  Thus  the  Jews  became  a  power  even  where 
they  ranked  only  as  aliens. 

It  is  much  more  difficult  to  understand  the  position  of 
the  Jews  in  those  Hellenic  cities  where  they  possessed  the 
rights  of  citizenship.  Now,  as  a  rule,  in  the  cities  founded 
by  the  Seleucid  kings,  the  Jews  were  actually  citizens.^ 
But  it  was  to  the  ancient  mind  an  outrage  and  an  almost 
inconceivable  thing,  that  people  could  be  fellow-citizens 
without  engaging  in  the  worship  of  the  same  city  gods. 
The  bond  of  patriotism  was  really  a  religious  bond.  The 
citizen  was  encompassed  by  religious  duties  from  his  cradle 
to  his  grave.  It  was  practically  impossible  for  the  Jew  to 
be  a  citizen  of  a  Greek  city  in  the  ordinary  way.  Some 
special  provision  was  needed. 

That  special  provision  was  made  by  the  Seleucid  kings 
in  founding  their  cities.  It  was  a  noteworthy  achievement, 
and  a  real  step  in  the  history  of  human  civilisation  and 
institutions,  when  they  succeeded  in  so  widening  the  es- 
sential theory  of  the  Greek  city  as  to  enable  the  Jew  to 
live  in  it  as  an  integral  part  of  it.  The  way  in  which  this 
result  was  attained  must  be  clearly  understood,  as  it  throws 
much  light  on  the  position  of  the  Jews  in  the  Graeco- 
Asiatic  cities. 

The  Greek  city  was  never  simply  an  aggregation  of 
citizens.  The  individual  citizens  were  always  grouped  in 
bodies,  usually  called  "  Tribes  "  (^uXai),  and  the  "  Tribes " 
made  up  the  city.'^  This  was  a  fundamental  principle  of 
Greek  city  organisation,  and  must  form  the  starting-point 
of  all  reasoning  on  the  subject.  The  city  was  an  associa- 
tion of  groups,  not  of  individuals.  It  is  generally  admitted 
that  the  groups  were  older  than  the  institution  of  cities, 


The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities  147 

being  a  survival  of  a  more  primitive  social  system.  As 
Mr.  Greenidge  says,  Rotnan  Public  Life,  p.  66 :  "  Simple 
membership  of  a  State,  which  was  not  based  on  member- 
ship of  some  lower  unit,  was  inconceivable  to  the  Graeco- 
Roman  world  ".  In  the  Seleucid  City-States  that  "  lower 
unit"  was  generally  called  the  "Tribe". 

The  "  Tribe "  was  united  by  a  religious  bond  (as  was 
every  union  or  association  of  human  beings  in  the  Graeco- 
Roman  world) :  the  members  met  in  the  worship  of  a 
common  deity  (or  deities),  and  their  unity  lay  in  their 
participation  in  the  same  religion.  It  was,  therefore,  as 
utterly  impossible  for  a  Jew  to  belong  to  an  ordinary 
Tribe,  as  it  was  for  him  to  belong  to  an  ordinary  Hellenic 
city. 

But,  just  as  it  was  possible  for  a  group  of  Jewish  aliens 
to  reside  in  a  Greek  city  and  practise  their  own  religious 
rites  in  a  private  association,  so  it  was  possible  to  enrol  a 
body  of  Jewish  citizens  in  a  special  "  Tribe  "  (or  equivalent 
aggregation),  which  was  united  without  any  bond  of  pagan 
religion.  That  this  must  have  been  the  method  followed 
by  the  Seleucid  kings  is  practically  certain  (so  far  as 
certainty  can  exist  in  that  period  of  history),  though  the 
fact  cannot  everywhere  be  demonstrated  in  the  absence  of 
records.  Josephus  mentions  that  in  Alexandria  the  "Tribe" 
of  the  Jews  was  called  "  Macedonians,"  i.e.  all  Jews  who 
possessed  the  Alexandrian  citizenship  were  enrolled  in 
"  the  Tribe  Macedones  "  :  this  "  Tribe  "  consisted  of  Jews 
only,  as  Josephus'  words  imply.^  and  as  was  obviously  ne- 
cessary (for  what  Greek  would  or  could  belong  to  a  Tribe 
which  consisted  mainly  of  the  multitude  of  Jews  with 
whom  the  rest  of  the  Alexandrian  population  was  almost 
constantly  at  war?) 


148        XII.  The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities 

The  example  of  Alexandria  may  be  taken  as  a  proof 
that,  by  a  sort  of  legal  fiction,  an  appearance  of  Hellenism 
was  given  to  the  Jewish  citizens  in  a  Greek  City-State, 
It  was  of  the  essence  of  both  Ptolemaic  and  Seleucid  cities 
that  they  should  be  centres  of  Hellenic  civilisation  and 
education.  In  the  period  of  which  we  are  treating  the 
term  "  Hellenes "  did  not  imply  Greek  blood  and  race,  but 
only  language  and  education  and  social  manners.  The 
Jews  could  never  be,  in  the  strict  sense,  Hellenes,  for  their 
manners  and  ways  of  thinking  were  too  diverse  from  the 
Greek ;  but  by  enrolling  them  in  a  "  Tribe,"  and  giving 
this  "  Tribe "  a  Greek  name  and  outward  appearance,  the 
Seleucid  and  Ptolemaic  kings  made  them  members  of  a 
city  of  Hellenes. 

But  the  other  difficulty  remained.  There  was  a  religious 
bond  uniting  the  whole  city.  The  entire  body  of  citizens 
was  knit  together  by  their  common  religion  ;  and  the  Jews 
stood  apart  from  this  city  cultus,  abhorring  and  despising 
it. 

The  Seleucid  practice  trampled  under  foot  this  religious 
difficulty  by  creating  an  exception  to  the  general  principle. 
The  Jews  were  simply  declared  by  the  founder  of  the 
dynasty,  Seleucus,  and  his  successors  to  be  citizens,  and  yet 
free  to  disregard  the  common  city  cultus.  They  were  ab- 
solved from  the  ordinary  laws  and  regulations  of  the  city, 
if  these  conflicted  with  the  Jewish  religion  :  especially,  they 
could  not  be  required  to  appear  in  court,  or  take  any  part 
in  public  life,  on  the  Sabbath.  Certain  regulations  were 
modified  to  suit  Jewish  scruples.  When  allowances  of  oil 
were  given  to  the  citizens,  the  royal  law  ordered  that  an 
equivalent  in  money  should  be  given  to  the  Jewish  citizens, 
whose  principles  forbade  them  to  use  oil  that  a  Gentile  had 


The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities  149 

handled  or  made.  Their  Hellenic  fellow-citizens  were  never 
reconciled  to  this.  It  seemed  to  them  an  outrage  that  mem- 
bers of  the  city  should  despise  and  reject  the  gods  of  the 
city.  This  rankled  in  their  minds,  a  wound  that  could  not 
be  healed.  Time  after  time,  wherever  a  favourable  op- 
portunity seemed  to  offer  itself,  they  besought  their  masters 
— Greek  king  or  Roman  emperor— to  deprive  the  Jews  of 
their  citizenship :  for  example,  their  argument  to  Agrippa 
in  15  B.C.  was  that  fellow-citizens  ought  to  reverence  the 
same  gods.^ 

Therein  lay  the  sting  of  the  case  to  the  Greeks  or  Hellenes. 
The  Jews  never  merged  themselves  in  the  Hellenic  unity. 
They  always  remained  outside  of  it,  a  really  alien  body.  In 
a  time  when  patriotism  was  identified  with  community  of 
religion,  it  was  not  possible  to  attain  true  unity  in  those 
mixed  States.  A  religious  revolution  was  needed,  and  to 
be  effective  it  must  take  the  direction  of  elevating  thought. 
Then  one  great  man,  with  the  true  prophet's  insight,  saw 
that  unity  could  be  introduced  only  by  raising  the  Gentiles 
to  a  higher  level  through  their  adoption  of  the  Jewish 
morality  and  religion  ;  and  to  that  man's  mind  this  was 
expressed  as  the  coming  of  the  Messiah,  an  idea  which 
was  very  differently  conceived  by  different  minds.  Else- 
where we  have  attempted  to  show  the  effect  upon  St.  Paul 
of  this  idea  as  it  was  forced  on  him  in  his  position  at  Tarsus, 
which  was  pre-eminently  the  meeting-place  of  East  and 
West.0 

It  follows  inevitably  from  the  conditions,  that  there  can 
never  have  been  a  case  of  a  single  and  solitary  Jewish 
citizen  in  a  Hellenic  city."  It  was  impossible  for  a  ]qv^  to 
face  the  religious  difficulty  in  an  ordinary  Greek  city.  He 
could  not  become  a  member  of  an  ordinary  "  Tribe " :  he 


150        XII.   The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities 

could  become  a  member  of  a  Hellenic  city  only  where  the 
act  of  some  superior  power  had  altered  the  regular  Greek 
constitution  in  favour  of  the  Jews  as  a  whole.  It  may  be 
set  aside  as  impossible,  as  opposed  to  all  evidence  and 
reasonable  inference,  either  that  an  ordinary  Hellenic  city 
would  voluntarily  set  aside  its  own  fundamental  principles 
in  order  to  welcome  its  most  hated  enemies  and  most 
dangerous  commercial  rivals,  or  that  the  superior  power 
would  or  could  violate  the  constitution  of  the  city  in  favour 
of  a  single  individual.  Where  Jews  are  proved  or  believed 
to  have  been  citizens  of  a  Hellenic  city,  the  origin  of  their 
right  must  lie  in  a  general  principle  laid  down  by  a  superior 
power,  accompanied  by  the  introduction  of  a  body  of  Jewish 
citizens  sufficiently  strong  to  support  one  another  and  main- 
tain their  own  unity  and  religion. 
» 
But  might  not  a  Jew  occasionally  desire  the   Hellenic 

citizenship  for  the  practical  advantages  it  might  offer  in 
trade  ?  He  might  desire  those  advantages  in  some  or  many 
cases  ;  but  they  could  not  be  got  without  formal  admission 
to  a  "Tribe,"  and  if  he  were  admitted  to  an  ordinary 
Hellenic  Tribe  through  a  special  decree,  he  must  either 
participate  in  its  religion  or  sacrifice  the  advantages  which 
he  aimed  at.  In  fact,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  any  per- 
son who  avoided  the  meetings  and  ceremonies  of  the  tribes- 
men could  have  retained  the  membership.  The  Jew  must 
either  abandon  his  nation  and  his  birthright  absolutely,  or 
he  must  stand  outside  of  the  Hellenic  citizenship,  except  in 
those  cities  whose  constitution  had  been  widened  by  the 
creation  of  a  special  "  Tribe  "  or  similar  body  for  Jews. 

The  case  may  be  set  aside  as  almost  inconceivable  that 
any  Jew  in  the  pre-Roman  period,  except  in  the  rarest 
cases,  absolutely  disowned  his  birthright  and  was  willing 


The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities  151 

to  merge  himself  in  the  ordinary  ranks  of  Hellenic  citizen- 
ship. Professor  E.  Schiirer  has  emphasised  the  thoroughly 
Hebraic  character  even  of  the  most  Hellenised  Jews  who 
had  settled  outside  Palestine ; "  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  he  is  right.  They  were  a  people  of  higher  education 
and  nobler  views  than  the  Gentiles ;  and  they  could  not 
descend  entirely  to  the  Gentile  level.  Even  the  lowest 
Jew  who  made  his  living  out  of  Gentile  superstitions  or 
vices  usually  felt,  as  we  may  be  sure,  that  he  was  of  a 
higher  stock,  and  was  not  willing  to  become  a  Gentile 
entirely. 

Moreover,  the  race  hatred  was  too  strong.  The  Greeks 
would  not  have  permitted  it,  even  if  a  Jew  had  desired  it. 
The  Greeks  had  no  desire  to  assimilate  the  Jews  to  them- 
selves ;  they  only  desired  to  be  rid  of  them. 

The  position  of  the  Jews  in  the  Ionian  cities  is  illustrated 
by  an  incident  that  occurred  in  15  B.C.  There  was  a  body 
of  Jews  in  Ephesus ;  and  the  other  citizens,  i.e.  the  Hellenes, 
tried  to  induce  Agrippa  to  expel  these  on  the  ground  that 
they  would  not  take  part  in  the  religion  of  the  city.  Their 
argument  is  instructive.  They  appealed  to  the  settlement 
of  the  Ephesian  constitution  by  Antiochus  H.,  261-246 
B.C.,  as  authoritative;  and  this  proves  that  there  had  been 
no  serious  change  in  the  principles  of  the  Ephesian  con- 
stitution since  that  time. 

That  body  of  Jews  in  Ephesus  did  not  consist  simply 
of  non-citizens,  resident  (perhaps  for  many  generations)  in 
the  city  for  purposes  of  trade.  That  there  were  Ephesian 
citizens  among  them  is  clearly  implied  in  the  pleading 
of  their  fellow-citizens :  the  Hellenes  of  Ephesus  made  no 
charge  against  Jewish  strangers :  in  the  forefront  of  their 
case  they  put  their  claim  that  the  Hellenes  alone  had  any 


152        XII.   The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities 

right  to  the  citizenship,  which  was  the  gift  of  Antiochus 
II.  These  words  are  useless  and  unnecessary,  unless  there 
was  a  body  of  Jews  claiming  to  be  citizens  of  Ephesus, 
whom  the  Greeks  desired  to  eject  from  the  citizenship. 
They  came  to  Agrippa  asking  permission,  not  to  expel 
Jewish  strangers  from  the  town,  but  to  deprive  the  Jews 
of  their  participation  in  the  State.* 

Moreover,  the  next  words  quoted  from  the  argument  of 
the  Hellenes  are  even  stronger :  they  put  the  case  that  the 
Jews  are  kinsmen  and  members  of  the  same  race  with 
themselves,  "  If  the  Jews  are  kinsmen  to  us,  they  ought 
to  worship  our  gods ".  The  only  conceivable  kinship 
between  Jews  and  Greeks  was  that  which  they  acquired 
through  common  citizenship.  The  idea  that  common  citi- 
zenship implies  and  produces  kinship  is  very  characteristic 
of  ancient  feeling  and  language.  We  note  in  passing 
that  this  idea  occurs  in  St.  Paul,  Rom.  xvi.  7,  1 1,  where 
the  word  "  kinsmen  "  will  be  understood  as  denoting  Tar- 
sian  Jews  by  those  who  approach  the  Epistles  from  the 
side  of  ordinary  contemporary  Greek  thought.  It  can 
hardly  mean  Jews  simply  (as  "kinsmen  according  to  the 
flesh,"  crvvyevel^  Kara  o-dpKa,  does  in  Rom,  ix.  3) ;  for  many 
other  persons  in  the  same  list  are  not  so  called,  though  they 
are  JeWs.  Andronicus  and  a  few  others  are  characterised 
as  members  of  the  same  city  and  "Tribe"  as  Paul. 

The  Jewish  rights,  therefore,  must  have  originated  from 
Antiochus  II.  Now,  throughout  his  reign,  that  king  was 
struggling  with  Ptolemy  King  of  Egypt  for  predominance 
in  the  Ionian  cities ;  and  the  constitution  which  he  intro- 
duced in  Ephesus  must  have  been  intended  to  attach  the 
city  to  his  side,  partly  by  confirming  its  rights  and  free- 
dom, partly  by  introducing  a  new  body  of  colonists  whose 


The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities  153 

loyalty  he  could  depend  upon ;  and  among  those  colonists 
were  a  number  of  Jews. 

This  conclusion  .  seems  inevitable ;  and  Professor  E. 
Schiirer  has  rightly  held  it.  But  the  common  view  has 
been  hitherto  that  Antiochus  II.  merely  gave  freedom  to 
the  Ionian  cities,  including  Ephesus ;  and  even  so  com- 
petent an  authority  as  Professor  Wilcken  adopts  the 
prevalent  view.^^  What  Antiochus  gave  was  not  mere 
freedom  in  our  vague  sense,  but  a  definite  constitution. 
The  ancients  knew  well  that  freedom  among  a  large  body  of 
men  is  impossible  without  a  constitution  and  written  laws. 

It  is  not  likely  to  be  suggested  by  any  scholar  that  some 
Jews  might  have  been  made  Ephesian  citizens,  when  the 
resident  aliens  who  had  helped  in  the  war  against  Mithri- 
dates  were  granted  citizenship  by  the  Ephesian  State,^* 
No  new  Tribes  were  then  instituted  ;  the  constitution  re- 
mained undisturbed ;  and  those  aliens  would  have  to  accept 
enrolment  in  one  of  the  pagan  groups  or  "  Tribes,"  out  of 
which  the  city  was  constituted  ;  and  this  we  have  seen  that 
Jews  could  not  accept.  If  there  was  a  body  of  Jewish 
citizens  in  Ephesus  (as  seems  certain),  they  must  have  been 
placed  there  by  some  external  authority ;  and,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  constitution  was  permanently  settled  by  Antiochus 
II.,  so  that  no  new  Tribes  had  been  instituted  and  no 
modification  by  external  authority  had  been  made. 

It  is  pointed  out  in  chapter  xvii.  that  a  new  Tribe,  whose 
name  is  unknown  (because  it  was  changed  afterwards  to 
Sebaste),  was  instituted  at  this  time  for  the  new  settlers 
whom  Antiochus  introduced.  He  doubtless  brought  colon- 
ists of  several  nationalities,  and  avoided  any  pagan  religious 
bond  of  Tribal  unity.  The  Jews  constituted  a  special  division 
(Chiliastys)  in  this  Tribe. 


154        XII.   The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities 

Antiochus  acted  similarly  in  several  of  th^  Ionian  cities, 
possibly  even  in  them  all.  His  changes  are  recorded  to 
have  been  made  in  the  Ionian  cities,  and  not  to  have  been 
confined  to  Ephesus.  The  case  of  Ephesus  may  be  taken 
as  typical  of  many  other  Asian  cities ;  yet  there  are  few 
cities  in  which  it  can  be  proved  conclusively  that  there  was 
a  body  of  Jewish  citizens.  As  a  rule,  the  individual  Jews 
escape  our  notice  :  only  general  facts  and  large  numbers 
have  been  recorded. 

A  little  more  is  known  about  the  Jews  of  the  Lycus 
Valley  through  the  extremely  important  inscriptions  pre- 
served at  Hierapolis.  Laodicea  and  Hierapolis,  lying 
so  near  one  another,  in  full  view  across  the  valley,  must 
be  taken  as  a  closely  connected  pair,  and  all  that  is  re- 
corded about  the  Jews  of  Hierapolis  may  be  taken  as 
applying  to  those  of  Laodicea  (apart  from  certain  differ- 
ences in  the  constitution  of  the  two  cities).  The  subject 
will  therefore  find  a  more  suitable  place  in  chapter  xxix. 

In  each  city  where  a  body  of  Jewish  citizens  was  formed, 
it  was  necessary  to  frame  a  set  of  rules  safeguarding  their 
peculiar  position  and  rights ;  for  no  rights  could  exist  in 
a  Greek  city  without  formal  enactment  in  a  written  law. 
This  body  of  law  is  called  in  an  inscription  of  Apameia  in 
Phrygia  "  the  Law  of  the  Jews  "  ;  and  the  character  of  the 
reference  shows  beyond  question  that  municipal  regula- 
tions, and  not  the  Mosaic  Law,  are  meant  under  that  name. 
Apameia,  therefore,  must  have  contained  a  class  of  Jewish 
citizens ;  and  its  character  and  history  have  been  investi- 
gated elsewhere.^^  A  similar  law  and  name  must  have 
existed  in  the  other  cities  where  there  was  a  body  of 
Jewish  citizens. 

The  Jews  had  come,  or  been  brought,  into  Asia  Minor 


The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities  155 

during  the  time  when  Palestine  was  growing  Hellenised  in 
the  warmth  of  Seleucid  favour.  In  their  new  homes  they 
were  even  more  kindly  treated,  and  all  the  conditions  of 
their  life  were  calculated  to  strengthen  their  good  feeling 
to  the  kings,  and  foster  the  Hellenising  tendency  among 
them,  at  least  in  externals.  They  necessarily  used  the 
Greek  language ;  they  became  accustomed  to  Greek  sur- 
roundings ;  they  learned  to  appreciate  Greek  science  and 
education ;  and  doubtless  they  did  not  think  gymnastic 
exercises  and  sports  such  an  abomination  as  the  authors 
of  First  and  Second  Maccabees  did. 

But,  as  Professor  E.  Schiirer  and  others  have  rightly  ob- 
served, there  is  not  the  slightest  reason  to  think  that  the 
Jews  of  Asia  Minor  ceased  to  be  true  to  their  religion  and 
their  nation  in  their  own  way :  they  really  commanded  a 
wider  outlook  over  the  world  and  a  more  sane  and  balanced 
judgment  on  truth  and  right  than  their  brethren  in  Pales- 
tine. They  looked  to  Jerusalem  as  their  centre  and  the 
home  of  their  religion.  They  contributed  to  maintain  the 
Temple  with  unfailing  regularity.  They  went  on  pil- 
grimage in  great  numbers,  and  the  pilgrim  ships  sailed 
regularly  every  spring  from  the  .^gean  harbours  for 
Caesareia.^®  They  were  in  patriotism  as  truly  Jews  as  the 
straitest  Pharisee  in  Jerusalem.  Doubtless  Paul  was  far 
from  being  the  only  Jew  of  Asia  Minor  who  could  boast 
that  he  was  "a  Pharisee  sprung  from  Pharisees ". ^^  Yet 
they  were  looked  at  with  disfavour  by  their  more  strait- 
laced  Palestinian  brethren,  and  regarded  as  little  better 
than  backsliders  and  Sadducees.  They  had  often,  we  may 
be  sure,  to  assert  their  true  Pharisaism  and  spirituality,  like 
Paul,  in  answer  to  the  reproach  of  being  mere  Sadducees 
with  their  Greek  speech  and  Greek  ways. 


156        XII.   The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities 

In  truth,  there  was  great  danger  lest  they  should  forget  the 
essence  of  their  Hebrew  faith.  Many  of  them  undoubtedly 
did  so,  though  they  still  remained  Jews  in  name  and  pro- 
fession, and  in  contempt  for  the  Gentiles,  even  while  they 
learned  from  them  and  cheated  them  and  made  money  by 
pandering  to  their  superstitions.  Many  such  Jews  were,  in 
very  truth,  only  "  a  Synagogue  of  Satan  "  (as  at  Smyrna  and 
Philadelphia),  but  still  they  continued  to  be  "  a  Synagogue  ". 
The  national  feeling  was  sound,  though  the  religious  feeling 
was  blunted  and  degraded. 

In  such  surroundings  was  Saul  of  Tarsus  brought  up,  a 
member  of  a  family  which  moved  both  in  the  narrow  and 
exclusive  circle  of  rich  Tarsian  citizenship  and  in  the  still 
more  proud  and  aristocratic  circle  of  Roman  citizenship. 
In  his  writings  we  see  how  familiar  he  was  with  the  Graeco- 
Asiatic  city  life,  and  how  readily  illustrations  from  Greek 
games  and  Roman  soldiers  and  triumphs  suggest  themselves 
to  him.  In  him  are  brought  to  a  focus  all  the  experiences 
of  the  Jews  of  Asia  Minor.  He  saw  clearly  from  childhood 
that  the  Maccabaean  reaction  had  not  saved  Palestine,  that 
the  Pharisaic  policy  of  excluding  Gentile  civilisation  and 
manners  had  failed,  and  that  the  only  possible  salvation 
for  his  nation  was  to  include  the  Gentiles  by  raising  them 
to  the  Jewish  level  in  morality  and  religion.  Judaism,  he 
saw,  must  either  lose  its  vigour  amid  the  sunshine  of  pros- 
perity in  Asia  Minor,  and  gradually  die,  or  it  must  con- 
quer the  Gentiles  by  assimilating  them.  The  issue  was, 
however,  certain.  The  promise  of  God  had  been  given  and 
could  not  fail.  This  new  prophet  saw  that  the  time  of  the 
Messiah  and  His  conquest  of  the  Gentiles  had  come. 

And  amid  such  surroundings  the  Jew  that  wrote  the 
Apocalypse  had  lived  for  years.     He  had  come  much  in 


The  Jews  in  the  Asian  Cities  157 

contact  both  with  the  Hellenist  Jews  of  the  Diaspora  and 
with  the  Christianised  pagans  in  the  Asian  cities.  He 
had  been  all  the  more  influenced  by  those  surroundings, 
because  his  whole  outlook  on  the  world  had  long  ago 
been  modified  by  the  ardent  spirit  of  St.  Paul.  He  was 
still  bound  to  Jewish  models  and  literary  forms  in  com- 
posing the  Apocalypse  ;  but  sometimes  the  spirit  and  the 
thought  which  he  expresses  in  those  forms  are  essentially 
non-Judaic,  though  their  wider  character  is  concealed  from 
most  of  the  commentators  under  the  outward  show  of  Ju- 
daism. His  growing  mind  was  on  the  point  of  bursting 
the  last  Jewish  fetters  that  still  contained  it,  the  reverence 
for  traditional  Jewish  literary  forms  ;  it  had  not  yet  done  so, 
but  in  the  composition  of  this  book  it  was  working  towards 
full  freedom. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE  PAGAN  CONVERTS  IN  THE  EARLY  CHURCH. 

In  one  respect  Ignatius  is  peculiarly  instructive  for  the 
study  of  the  early  Asian  Churches,  in  which  the  converts 
direct  from  Paganism  must  have  been  a  numerous  and 
important  body.  This  peculiar  position  and  spirit  of  Pagan 
converts  (coming  direct  from  Paganism),  as  distinguished 
from  Jews  or  those  Pagans  who  had  come  into  the  Church 
through  the  door  of  the  Jewish  synagogue,  must  engage  our 
attention  frequently  during  the  study  of  the  Seven  Letters  ; 
and  Ignatius  will  prove  the  best  introduction. 

The  Pagan  converts  had  not  the  preliminary  education 
in  Jewish  thoughts  and  religious  ideas  which  a  previous 
acquaintance  with  the  service  of  the  synagogue  had  given 
those  Gentiles  who  had  been  among  "  the  God-fearing " 
before  they  came  over  to  Christianity.  The  direct  passage 
from  Paganism  to  Christianity  must  have  left  a  different 
mark  on  their  nature.  Doubtless,  some  or  even  many  of 
them  came  from  a  state  of  religious  indifference  or  of  vicious 
and  degraded  life.  But  others,  and  probably  the  majority 
of  them,  must  have  previously  had  religious  sensibility 
and  religious  aspirations.  Now  what  became  of  those  early 
religious  ideas  during  their  later  career  as  Christians  ?  If 
they  had  previously  entertained  any  religious  aspirations 
and  thoughts,  these  must  have  sought  expression,  and  occa- 
sionally met  with  stimulus  and  found  partial  satisfaction  in 

(158) 


The  Pagan  Converts  in  the  Early  Church     159 

some  forms  of  Pagan  worship  or  speculation.  Did  these 
men,  when  they  as  Christians  looked  back  on  their  Pagan 
life,  regard  those  moments  of  religious  experience  as  being 
merely  evil  and  devilish ;  or  did  they  see  that  such  actions 
had  been  the  groping  and  effort  of  nature  towards  God, 
giving  increased  strength  and  vitality  to  their  longing  after 
God,  and  that  those  moments  had  been  really  steps  in  their 
progress,  incomplete  but  not  entirely  wrong  ? 

To  this  inevitable  question  Ignatius  helps  us  to  find  an 
answer,  applicable  to  some  cases,  though  not,  of  course,  to 
all.  That  he  had  been  a  convert  from  Paganism  is  inferred 
with  evident  justification  by  Lightfoot  from  his  letter  to 
the  Romans,  §  9.  He  was  born  into  the  Church  out  of  due 
time,  imperfect  in  nature,  by  an  irregular  and  violent  birth, 
converted  late,  after  a  career  which  was  to  him  a  lasting 
cause  of  shame  and  humiliation  in  his  new  life.  That 
feeling  might  be  considered  as  partly  a  cause  of  the 
profound  humility  which  he  afterwards  felt  towards  the 
long-established  Ephesian  Church.  Hence  he  writes  to 
the  Romans :  "  I  do  not  give  orders  to  you  as  Peter  and 
Paul  did  :  they  were  Apostles,  I  am  a  convict ;  they  were 
free,  but  I  am  a  slave  to  this  very  hour".  In  the  last 
expression  we  may  see  a  reference,  not  to  his  having  been 
literally  a  slave  (as  many  do),  but  to  his  having  been  for- 
merly enslaved  to  the  passions  and  desires  of  Paganism ; 
from  this  slavery  he  can  hope  to  be  set  free  completely 
only  through  death ;  death  will  give  him  liberty,  and 
already  even  in  the  journey  to  Rome  and  the  preparation 
to  meet  death,  **  I  am  learning  to  put  away  every  desire ". 

The  remarkable  passage  in  Eph.  §  9  must  arrest  every 
reader's  attention :  "  Ye  are  all  companions  in  the  way, 
God-bearers,  shrine-bearers,  Christ-bearers,  and  bearers  of 


i6o  XIII.    The  Pagan  Converts 

your  holy  things,  arrayed  from  head  to  foot  in  the  com- 
mandments of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  I,  too,  taking  part  in  the 
festival,  am  permitted  by  letter  to  bear  you  company". 
The  life  of  the  Ephesian  Christians  is  pictured  after  the 
analogy  of  a  religious  procession  on  the  occasion  of  a 
festival ;  life  for  them  is  one  long  religious  festival  and 
procession.  Now  at  this  time  it  is  impossible  to  suppose 
that  public  processions  could  have  formed  part  of  their 
worship.  Imperial  law  and  custom,  popular  feeling,  and 
the  settled  rule  of  conduct  in  the  Church,  all  alike  forbade 
such  public  and  provocative  display  of  Christian  worship. 
Moreover  it  is  highly  improbable  that  the  Church  had  as 
yet  come  to  the  stage  when  such  ceremonial  was  admitted 
as  part  of  the  established  ritual :  the  ceremonies  of  the 
Church  were  still  of  a  very  simple  and  purely  private 
character.  It  was  only  when  the  ceremonial  could  be  per- 
formed in  public  that  it  grew  in  magnificence  and  outward 
show. 

Yet  the  passage  sets  before  the  readers  in  the  most  vivid 
way  the  picture  of  such  a  festal  scene,  with  a  troop  of 
rejoicing  devotees  clad  in  the  appropriate  garments,  bear- 
ing their  religious  symbols  and  holy  things  in  procession 
through  the  streets.  That  is  exactly  the  scene  which  was 
presented  to  the  eyes  of  all  Ephesians  several  times  every 
year  at  the  great  festivals  of  the  goddess ;  and  Ignatius 
had  often  seen  such  processions  in  his  own  city  of  Antioch. 
He  cannot  but  have  known  what  image  his  words  would 
call  up  in  the  minds  of  his  readers,  and  he  cannot  but  have 
intended  to  call  up  that  image,  point  by  point,  and  detail 
after  detail.  The  heathen  devotees  were  dressed  for  the 
occasion,  mostly  in  white  garments,^  with  garlands  of  the 
sacred  foliage  (whatever  tree  or  plant  the  deity  preferred), 


In  the  Early  Church  i6i 

while  many  of  the  principal  personages  wore  special  dress 
of  a  still  more  sacred  character,  which  marked  them  as 
playing  for  the  time  the  part  of  the  god  and  of  his  attend- 
ant divine  beings,  and  some  were  adorned  with  the  golden 
crown  either  of  their  deity  or  of  the  Imperial  religion.^  But 
the  Ephesian  Christians  wear  the  orders  of  Christ.  The 
heathen  devotees  carried  images  of  their  gods,  both  the 
principal  deities  and  many  associated  beings.  The  Chris- 
tian Ephesians  in  their  life  carry  God  and  carry  Christ 
always  with  them,  for,  as  Ignatius  has  said  in  the  previous 
sentence,  their  conduct  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life  spirit- 
ualised those  affairs,  inasmuch  as  they  did  everything  in 
Christ.  Many  of  the  heathen  devotees  carried  in  their 
processions  small  shrines  containing  representations  of  their 
gods ;  but  the  body  of  every  true  right-living  Christian  is 
the  temple  and  shrine  of  his  God.  The  heathen  carried  in 
the  procession  many  sacred  objects,  sometimes  openly 
displayed,  sometimes  concealed  in  boxes  (like  the  sacred 
mystic  things,  to.  anropp'qTa,  which  were  brought  from 
Eleusis  to  Athens  by  one  procession  in  order  that  a  few 
days  later  they  might  be  carried  back  by  the  great  mystic 
procession  to  Eleusis  for  the  celebration  of  the  Mysteries)  ;  ^ 
and  at  Ephesus  an  inscription  of  this  period  contains  a  long 
enumeration  of  various  objects  and  ornaments  which  were 
to  be  carried  in  one  of  the  great  annual  processions.  But 
the  Christians  carry  holiness  itself  with  them,  wherever  they 
go  and  whatever  they  do. 

How  utterly  different  is  the  spirit  of  this  passage  from 
the  Jewish  attitude  towards  the  heathen  world  I  Every 
analogy  that  Ignatius  here  draws  would  have  been  to  the 
Jews  an  abomination,  the  forbidden  and  hateful  thing.  It 
would  have  been  loathsome  to  them  to  compare  the  things 


1 62  XIII,    The  Pagan  Converts 


of  God  with  the  things  of  idols  or  devils.  Ignatius  evi- 
dently had  never  passed  through  the  phase  of  Judaism  ; 
he  had  passed  straight  from  Paganism  to  Christianity.  He 
very  rarely  quotes  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  when  he 
does  his  quotations  are  almost  exclusively  from  Psalms  and 
Isaiah,  the  books  which  would  be  most  frequently  used  by 
Christians. 

Hence  he  places  his  new  religion  directly  in  relation  with 
Paganism.  Christianity  spiritualises  and  enlarges  and  en- 
nobles the  ceremonial  of  the  heathen  ;  but  that  ceremonial 
was  not  simply  rejected  by  him  as  abominable  and  vile,  for 
it  was  a  step  in  the  way  of  religion. 

The  point  of  view  is  noble  and  true,  and  yet  it  proved 
to  be  the  first  step  in  the  path  that  led  on  by  insensible 
degrees,  during  the  loss  of  education  in  the  Church,  to  the 
paganising  of  religion  and  the  transformation  of  the  Pagan 
deities  into  saints  of  the  Church,  Demeter  into  St.  Deme- 
trius, Achilles  Pontarches  into  St.  Phocas  of  Sinope,  Posei- 
don into  St.  Nicolas  of  Myra,  and  so  on.  From  these 
words  of  Ignatius  it  is  easy  to  draw  the  moral,  which 
assuredly  Ignatius  did  not  dream  of,  that  the  Church 
should  express  religious  feeling  in  similar  processions ;  and, 
as  thought  and  feeling  deteriorated,  the  step  was  taken. 

The  same  true  and  idealised  spirit  is  perceptible  in  other 
parts  of  Ignatius's  letters.  In  Eph.  §  lo  he  says  :  "  Pray 
continually  for  the  rest  of  mankind  {i.e.  those  who  are  not 
Christians,  and  specially  the  Pagans),  for  there  is  in  them  a 
hope  of  repentance.  Give  them  the  opportunity  of  learning 
from  your  actions,  if  they  will  not  hear  you."  The  influence 
of  St.  Paul's  teaching  is  here  conspicuous  :  by  nature  the 
Gentiles  do  the  things  of  the  Law,  if  they  only  give  theii 
real  nature  free  play,  and  do  not  degrade  it  (Rom.  ii.  i6). 


In  the  Early  Church  163 

Ignatius  felt  strongly  the  duty  he  owed  to  his  former  co- 
religionists, as  Paul  felt  himself  "a  debtor  both  to  Greeks 
and  to  Barbarians";  and  just  as  the  term  "debtor"  implies 
that  Paul  had  received  and  felt  himself  bound  to  repay,' 
such  indubitably  must  have  been  the  thought  in  the  mind 
of  Ignatius.  Ignatius  learned  the  lesson  from  Paul,  because 
he  was  prepared  to  learn  it.  Many  have  read  him  and 
have  not  learned  it. 

In  this  view  new  light  is  thrown  on  a  series  of  passages 
in  the  letters  of  Ignatius,  some  of  which  are  obscure,  and 
one  at  least  has  been  so  little  understood  that  the  true 
reading  is  by  many  editors  rejected,  though  Lightfoot's 
sympathetic  feeling  for  Ignatius  keeps  him  right,  as  it  usu- 
ally does ;  and  Zahn  independently  has  decided  in  favour 
of  the  same  text. 

One  of  the  most  characteristic  and  significant  features  in 
the  writings  of  Ignatius  is  the  emphasis  that  he  lays  on 
silence,  as  something  peculiarly  sacred  and  Divine.  He 
recurs  to  this  thought  repeatedly.  Silence  is  characteristic 
of  God,  speech  of  mankind.  The  more  the  bishop  is  silent, 
the  more  he  is  to  be  feared  (Eph.  §  6).  The  acts  which 
Christ  has  done  in  silence  are  worthy  of  the  Father ;  and 
he  that  truly  possesses  the  Word  of  Christ  is  able  even 
to  hear  His  silence,  so  as  to  be  perfect,  so  that  through 
what  he  says  he  may  be  doing,  and  through  his  silence  he 
may  be  understood  (Eph.  §  15).  And  so  again  he  is 
astonished  at  the  moderation  of  the  Philadelphian  bishop, 
whose  silence  is  more  effective  than  the  speech  of  others. 

So  far  the  passages  quoted,  though  noteworthy,  do  not 
imply  anything  more  than  a  vivid  appreciation  of  the  value 
of  reserve,  so  that  speech  should  convey  the  impression  of 
a  latent  and  still  unused  store  of  strength.     But  the  follow- 


164  XIII.    The  Pagan  Converts 

ing  passages  do  more ;  they  show  that  a  certain  mystic 
and  Divine  nature  and  value  were  attributed  by  Ignatius  to 
Silence ;  and  in  the  light  of  those  two  passages,  the  words 
quoted  above  from  Eph.  §15  are  seen  to  have  also  a  mystic 
value. 

In  Eph.  §  19  he  speaks  of  the  three  great  Christian 
mysteries — the  virginity  of  Mary,  the  birth  of  her  Son,  and 
the  death  of  the  Lord,  "  three  mysteries  shouting  aloud  (in 
the  world  of  men),  which  were  wrought  in  the  Silence  of 
God  ".  In  Magn.  |  8  he  speaks  of  God  as  having  manifested 
Himself  through  His  Son,  who  is  His  Word  that  proceeded 
from  Silence.* 

Now,  we  must  ask  what  was  the  origin  of  this  mystic 
power  that  Ignatius  assigns  to  Silence.  Personally,  I 
cannot  doubt  that  his  mind  and  thought  were  influenced  by 
his  recollection  of  the  deep  impression  that  certain  Pagan 
Mysteries  had  formerly  made  on  him. 

It  is  mentioned  in  the  Philosophiimena,  lib.  v.  (ed.  Miller, 
p.  117;  ed.  Cruice,  p.  171),  that  "the  great  and  wonderful 
and  most  perfect  mystery,  placed  before  those  who  were 
[at  Eleusis]  initiated  into  the  second  and  higher  order,  was 
a  shoot  of  corn  harvested  in  silence  ".  In  this  brief  descrip- 
tion a  striking  scene  is  set  before  us  :  the  hushed  expecta- 
tion of  the  initiated,  the  contrast  with  the  louder  and  more 
crowded  and  dramatic  scenes  of  the  previous  Mystic  acts, 
as  in  absolute  silence  the  Divine  life  works  itself  out  to  an 
end  in  the  growing  ear  of  corn,  which  is  reaped  before  them. 
There  can  be  no  doubt,  amid  all  the  obscurity  which  envel- 
opes the  Eleusinian  ceremonial,  that  great  part  of  the  effect 
which  they  produced  on  the  educated  and  thoughtful,  the 
intellectual  and  philosophic  minds,  lay  in  the  skilful,  dra- 
matically presented  contrast  between  the  earlier  naturalistic 


In  the  Early  Church  165 

life,  set  before  them  in  scenes  of  violence  and  repulsive 
horror,  and  the  later  reconciliation  of  the  jarring  elements 
in  the  peaceful  Divine  life,  as  revealed  for  the  benefit  of 
men  by  the  Divine  power,  and  shown  on  the  mystic  stage 
as  perfected  in  profound  silence.  Think  of  the  hierophant, 
a  little  before,  shouting  aloud, "  a  holy  son  Brimos  the  Lady 
Brimo  has  borne,"  as  the  culmination  of  a  series  of  outrages 
and  barbarities  :  then  imagine  the  dead  stillness,  and  the 
Divine  life  symbolised  to  the  imagination  of  the  sympathetic 
and  responsive  mystai  in  the  growing  and  garnered  ear  of 
the  Divinely  revealed  corn  which  dies  only  to  live  again, 
which  is  destroyed  only  to  be  useful. 

The  scene  which  we  have  described  is  mentioned  only  as 
forming  part  of  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries  ;  and  it  may  be 
regarded  as  quite  probable  that  Ignatius  had  been  initiated 
at  Eleusis.  Initiation  at  Eleusis  (which  had  in  earlier  times 
been  confined  to  the  Athenian  people)  was  widened  in  later 
times  so  that  all  "  Hellenes,"  i.e.  all  persons  whose  language 
and  education  and  spirit  were  Greek,  were  admitted.  Thus, 
for  example,  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  who  had  been  rejected  in 
A.D.  51  on  the  ground,  not  that  he  was  a  foreigner,  but  that 
he  was  suspected  of  magic,  was  admitted  to  initiation  in  A.D. 
55,  But  it  is  also  true  that  (as  is  pointed  out  in  Dr.  Hastings' 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  v.,  p.  126)  "the  Mysteries  celebrated 
at  different  religious  centres  competed  with  one  another  in 
attractiveness,"  and  they  all  borrowed  from  one  another 
and  "  adapted  to  their  own  purposes  elements  which  seemed 
to  be  attractive  in  others  ".  Hence  it  may  be  that  Ignatius 
had  witnessed  that  same  scene,  or  a  similar  one,  in  other 
Mysteries. 

That  the  highest  and  most  truly  Divine  nature  is  silent 
must  have  been  the  lesson  of  the  Eleusinian  Mysteries,  just 


1 66  XIII.    The  Pagan  Converts 

as  surely  as  they  taught — not  by  any  formal  dogmatic 
teaching  (for  the  words  uttered  in  the  representation  of  the 
Divine  drama  before  the  initiated  were  concerned  only  with 
the  dramatic  action),  but  through  the  impression  produced 
on  those  who  comprehended  the  meaning  of  the  drama, 
and  (as  the  ancients  say)  it  required  a  philosophic  spirit 
and  a  reverent  religious  frame  of  mind  to  comprehend — 
that  the  life  of  man  is  immortal.  Both  those  lessons  were 
to  Ignatius  stages  in  the  development  of  his  religious  con- 
sciousness ;  and  the  way  in  which,  and  the  surroundings 
amid  which,  he  had  learned  them  affected  his  conception 
and  declaration  of  the  principles,  the  Mysteries  of  Chris- 
tianity. Marcellus  of  Ancyra,  about  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century,  was  influenced  probably  in  the  same  way, 
when  he  declared  that  God  was  along  with  quietness  (elva* 
Tov  deov  Kai  riva  rjcrv^iav  afia  tw  deoji)  and  that,  as  early 
heretics  had  taught,  in  the  beginning  there  was  God  and 
Silence  (^v  0eo9  kuI  aty^). 

The  importance  of  Silence  in  the  mystic  ritual  is  fully 
appreciated  by  Dr.  Dieterich  in  his  valuable  and  fascin- 
ating book.  Erne  Mithrasliturgie  (Leipzig,  1903)  p.  42. 
Among  the  preparatory  instructions  given  to  the  Mystes 
was  this:  "Lay  thy  right  finger  on  thy  mouth  and  say, 
Silence  !  Silence  !  Silence  !  symbol  of  the  living  imperish- 
able God  !  "  Silence  is  even  addressed  in  prayer,  "  Guard 
me,  Silence".  Dr.  Dieterich  remarks  that  the  capital  S 
is  needed  in  such  an  invocation. 

Lightfoot  considers  (see  his  note  on  Trail.  §  2)  that  when 
Ignatius  speaks  of  the  mysteries  of  Christianity,  he  has  no 
more  in  his  mind  than  "  the  wide  sense  in  which  the  word 
is  used  by  St.  Paul,  revealed  truths''.  But  we  cannot  agree 
in  this  too  narrow  estimate.     To  Ignatius  there  lies  in  the 


In  the  Early  Church  167 

term  a  certain  element  of  power.  To  him  the  "  mysteries  " 
of  the  Faith  would  have  been  very  insufficiently  described 
by  such  a  coldly  scientific  definition  as  "revealed  truths": 
such  abstract  lifeless  terms  were  to  him,  as  in  Col.  ii.  8, 
mere  "  philosophy  and  vain  deceit ".  The  "  mysteries  " 
were  living,  powerful  realities,  things  of  life  that  could 
move  the  heart  and  will  of  men  and  remake  their  nature. 
He  uses  the  term,  I  venture  to  think,  in  a  similar  yet 
slightly  different  sense  from  Paul,  who  employs  it  very 
frequently.  Paul,  too,  attaches  to  it  something  of  the  same 
idea  of  power;  for  "the  mystery  of  iniquity"  (2  Thess.  ii. 
7)  is  to  him  a  real  and  strong  enemy.  But  Ignatius  seems 
to  attach  to  the  "  mysteries  "  even  more  reality  and  objec- 
tivity than  Paul  does.^ 

Surely  Ignatius  derived  his  idea  of  the  "mysteries" 
partly  at  least  from  the  experiences  of  his  Pagan  days. 
He  had  felt  the  strong  influence  of  the  greater  Mysteries, 
to  which  some  of  the  greatest  thinkers  among  the  Greeks 
bear  testimony;  and  the  Christian  principles  completed 
and  perfected  the  ideas  which  had  begun  in  his  Pagan 
days. 

This  idea,  that  the  religious  conceptions  of  Paganism 
served  as  a  preparatory  stage  leading  up  to  Christianity, 
was  held  by  many,  as  well  as  by  Ignatius.  Justin  Martyr 
gave  clear  expression  to  it,  and  Eusebius  works  it  out  in  his 
Prceparatio  Evangelica.  Those  who  were  conscious  that  a 
real  development  of  the  religious  sense  had  begun  in  their 
own  mind  during  their  Pagan  days  and  experiences,  and  had 
been  completed  in  their  Christian  life,  must  inevitably  have 
held  it ;  and  there  were  many  Pagans  of  a  deeply  religious 
nature,  some  of  whom  became  Christians. 

The  change  of  spirit  involved  in  this  development  through 


1 68  XIII.   The  Pagan  Converts 

Paganism  to  Christianity  is  well  expressed  by  a  modern 
poet : — 

Girt  in  the  panther-fells,  ' 

Violets  in  my  hair, 
Down  I  ran  through  the  woody  dells. 

Through  the  morning  wild  and  fair, — ■ 
To  sit  by  the  road  till  the  sun  was  high, 
That  I  might  see  some  god  pass  by. 

Fluting  amid  the  thyme 

I  dreamed  through  the  golden  day, 

Calling  through  melody  and  rhyme  : 
"  lacchus  !     Come  this  way, — 

From  harrowing  Hades  like  a  king. 

Vine  leaves  and  glories  scattering." 

Twilight  was  all  rose-red, 

When,  crowned  with  vine  and  thorn, 

Came  a  stranger  god  from  out  the  dead; 
And  his  hands  and  feet  were  torn. 

I  knew  him  not,  for  he  came  alone  : 

I  knew  him  not,  whom  I  fain  had  known. 

He  said :  "  For  love,  for  love, 

I  wear  the  vine  and  thorn". 
He  said:  "  For  love,  for  love. 

My  hands  and  feet  were  torn : 
For  love,  the  winepress  Death  I  trod  ". 
.  And  I  cried  in  pain  :  "  O  Lord  my  God  ". 

— Mrs.  Rachel  Annand  Taylor,  Poems,  1904. 

That  the  same  view  should  be  strongly  held  in  the  Asian 
Churches  was  inevitable.  That  often  it  should  be  pressed 
to  an  extreme  was  equally  inevitable  ;  and  one  of  its  extreme 
forms  was  the  Nicolaitan  heresy,  which  the  writer  of  the 
Seven  Letters  seems  to  have  regarded  as  the  most  pressing 
and  immediate  danger  to  those  Churches.  That  writer  was 
a  Jew,  who  was  absolutely  devoid  of  sympathy  for  that 
whole  side  of  thought,  alike  in  its  moderate  and  its  extreme 


In  the  Early  Church  169 

forms.  The  moderate  forms  seemed  to  him  lukewarm  ;  the 
extreme  forms  were  a  simple  abomination. 

Such  was  the  view  of  one  school  or  class  in  the  Christian 
Church.  The  opposite  view,  that  the  Pagan  Mysteries  were 
a  mere  abomination,  is  represented  much  more  strongly  in 
the  Christian  literature.  There  is  not  necessarily  any  con- 
tradiction between  them.  Ignatius  felt,  as  we  have  said, 
that  his  Pagan  life  was  a  cause  of  lasting  humiliation  and 
shame  to  him,  even  though  he  was  fully  conscious  that  his 
religious  sensibility  had  been  developing  through  it.  We 
need  not  doubt  that  he  would  have  endorsed  and  approved 
every  word  of  the  charges  which  the  Christian  apologists 
made  against  the  Mysteries.  Both  views  are  true,  but 
both  are  partial :  neither  gives  a  complete  statement  of  the 
case. 

The  mystic  meaning  that  lay  in  even  the  grossest  cere- 
monies of  the  Eleusinian  and  other  Mysteries  has  been 
rightly  insisted  upon  by  Miss  J.  E.  Harrison  in  h^r  Prolego- 
mena to  the  Study  of  Greek  Religion  (especially  chapter 
viii.),  a  work  well" worthy  of  being  studied.  Miss  Harrison 
has  the  philosophic  insight  which  the  ancients  declare  to 
be  necessary  in  order  to  understand  and  learn  from  the 
Mysteries.  Their  evil  side  is  to  her  non-existent,  and  the 
old  Christian  writers  who  inveighed  against  the  gross  and 
hideous  rites  enacted  in  the  Mysteries  are  repeatedly  de- 
nounced by  her  in  scathing  terms  as  full  of  unclean  imagin- 
ings— though  she  fully  admits,  of  course,  the  truth  of  the 
facts  which  they  allude  to  or  describe  in  detail.  The 
authoress,  standing  on  the  lofty  plane  of  philosophic  ideal- 
ism, can  see  only  the  mystic  meaning,  while  she  is  too  far 
removed  above  the  ugliness  to  be  cognisant  of  it.  But  to 
shut  one's  eyes  to  the  evil  does  not  annihilate  it  for  the 


I70      XIII.  Pagan  Converts  in  the  Early  Church 


world,  though  it  may  annihilate  it  for  the  few  who  shut 
their  eyes.  Plato  in  the  Second  Book  of  the  Republic  is  as 
emphatic  as  Firmicus  or  Clemens  in  recognising  the  harm 
that  those  ugly  tales  and  acts  of  the  gods  did  to  the  mass  of 
the  people.  This  must  all  be  borne  in  mind  while  studying 
her  brilliant  work. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE  SEVEN  CHURCHES  OF  ASIA. 

What  thou  seest,  ivrite  in  a  book,  and  send  to  the  Seven  Churches^;  unto 
Ephesus,  and  unto  Smyrna,  and  unto  Pergamum,  and  unto  Thyatira,  and 
unto  Sardis,  and  unto  Philadelphia,  and  unto  Laodicea. 

Some  manuscripts  read  in  this  passage  "  f/ie  Seven  Churches 
which  are  in  Asia  "  ;  but  the  added  words  are  certainly  an 
interpolation  from  the  introduction,  verse  4,  ^^  John  to  the 
Seven  ChurcJies  which  are  in  Asia".  The  addition  states 
correctly  the  limits  of  the  area  from  which  the  Seven 
Churches  were  selected  ;  but  it  loses  the  emphasis  implied 
in  the  simple  phrase  "  The  Seven  Churches".  From  the 
context  it  is  clear  that  they  all  belonged  to  Asia,  i.e.,  to 
the  Roman  Province  called  by  that  name ;  but  here,  in  the 
very  beginning  of  John's  vision,  the  Seven  are  mentioned 
as  a  recognised  number,  already  to  the  hearer  and  the 
readers. 

This  remarkable  expression,  "  The  Seven  Churches" 
must  arrest  the  attention  of  every  reader.  At  the  first 
glance  one  might  gather  that  only  those  Seven  Churches 
existed  in  the  Province  Asia,  and  that  the  Revelation  had 
been  composed  at  an  early  date  when  there  were  no  more 
Churches  than  the  Seven.  But  that  is  impossible.  There 
never  was  a  time  when  those  Seven  Churches  existed,  and 
no  others.  Their  situation  shows  that  they  could  not  well 
be  the  first  seven  to  be  founded :  several  other  unnamed 

(171) 


172        XIV.    The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia 

Churches  certainly  must  have  been  formed  before  Thyatira 
and  Philadelphia.  Moreover,  references  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment prove  beyond  question  the  existence  of  various  other 
Churches  in  the  Province  before  the  earliest  date  at  which 
the  composition  of  the  Apocalypse  of  John  has  ever  been 
placed.  A  survey  of  the  chief  facts  regarding  those  other 
Churches  will  prove  instructive  for  the  present  investiga- 
tion. 

(i)  Already  during  the  residence  of  St.  Paul  in  Ephesus, 
A.D.  54  to  56,  "«//  they  which  dwelt  in  Asia  heard  the 
word"  (Acts  xix.  10).  That  would  never  have  been  re- 
corded, except  as  an  explanation  of  the  rapid  spread  of  the 
new  religion  and  the  growth  of  numerous  Churches. 

(2)  Already  in  A.D.  61  the  Church  of  Colossae  was  the 
recipient  of  a  letter  from  St.  Paul ;  he  asks  the  Colossians 
to  cause  that  his  letter  be  read  in  the  Church  of  the  Laodi- 
ceans,  and  that  "ye  also  read  the  letter  from  Laodicea" 
(Col.  iv.  16) ;  and  he  mentions  a  body  of  Christians,  who 
must  have  constituted  a  Church,  at  Hierapolis  (Col.  iv.  13). 
In  this  case  it  is  evident  that  the  three  Churches  of  the 
Lycus  Valley  were  considered  by  every  one  to  stand  in 
close  relation  to  one  another.  They  are  very  near,  Hiera- 
polis being  about  six  miles  north,  and  Colossae  eleven 
miles  east,  from  Laodicea,  and  they  are  grouped  together 
as  standing  equal  in  the  affection  and  zeal  of  the  Colos- 
sian  Epaphras.  Any  letter  addressed  to  one  of  them  was 
regarded  apparently  by  St.  Paul  as  common  to  the  other 
two.  This  did  not  require  to  be  formally  stated  about 
Laodicea  and  Hierapolis,  which  are  in  full  view  of  one 
another  on  opposite  sides  of  the  glen ;  but  Colossae  lay 
in  the  higher  glen  of  the  Lycus.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  Hierapolis  and  Colossae  perhaps  ceased  to  be  Churches, 


The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia  173 

because  those  cities  may  have  been  destroyed  by  an  earth- 
quake between  A.D.  61  and  90.^  Such  a  supposition  cannot 
be  entertained.  There  is  not  the  slightest  reason  to  think 
that  those  cities  were  annihilated  nbout  that  time.  On  the 
contrary  Hierapolis  continued  to  grow  steadily  in  wealth 
and  importance  after  this  hypothetical  destruction  ;  and,  if 
Colossas  rather  dwindled  than  increased,  the  reason  lay  in 
its  being  more  and  more  overshadowed  by  Laodicea.  The 
earthquakes  of  Asia  Minor  have  not  been  of  such  a  serious 
nature,  and  seem  rarely  if  ever  to  have  caused  more  than 
a  passing  loss  and  inconvenience.  There  was  nothing  in 
such  an  event  likely  either  to  kill  or  to  frighten  away  the 
Christians  of  those  two  Churches.^ 

(3)  Troas  was  the  seat  of  a  Church  in  A.D.  56  (2  Cor.  ii. 
12)  and  A.D.  57  (Acts  xx.  7  ff.).  It  was  then  considered  by 
St.  Paul  to  be  "  a  door,"  through  which  access  was  opened 
to  a  wide  region  that  lay  behind  in  the  inner  country :  its 
situation  in  respect  of  roads  and  communication  made  it 
a  specially  suitable  and  tempting  point  of  departure  for 
evangelisation ;  it  was  a  link  in  the  great  chain  of  Imperial 
postal  communication  across  the  Empire ;  and  its  impor- 
tance lay  in  its  relation  to  the  other  cities  with  which 
it  was  connected  by  a  series  of  converging  roads.  The 
ordinary  "  overland "  route  from  Rome  to  the  East  by  the 
Appian  and  the  Egnatian  Way  crossed  the  <^gean  from 
Neapolis,  the  harbour  of  Philippi,  to  Troas,  Pergamum,  etc. ; 
and  there  must  have  been  continual  communication,  summer 
and  winter  alike,  between  Neapolis  and  Troas.^  Places  in 
such  a  situation,  where  a  change  was  made  from  land-travel 
to  sea-faring,  offered  a  peculiarly  favourable  opportunity 
for  intercourse  and  the  spread  of  a  new  system  of  thought 
and  life.^     Troas,  therefore,  undoubtedly  played  a  very  im- 


174        XIV.    The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia 

portant  part  in  the  development  of  the  Asian  Church ;  yet 
it  is  not  mentioned  among  the  Seven. 

(4)  It  may  also  be  regarded  as  practically  certain  that 
the  great  cities  which  lay  on  the  important  roads  connecting 
those  Seven  leading  Cities  with  one  another  had  all  "  heard 
the  word,"  and  that  most  of  them  were  the  seats  of  Churches, 
when  the  Seven  Letters  were  written.  We  remember  that, 
not  long  afterwards,  Magnesia  and  Tralleis,  the  two  im- 
portant, wealthy  and  populous  cities  on  the  road  between 
Ephesus  and  Laodicea,  possessed  Churches  of  their  own 


FlO.  10.     Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Pergamum,  "  First  of  Asia  "  (p.  175). 

and  bishops ;  that  they  both  sent  deputations  to  salute, 
console  and  congratulate  the  Syrian  martyr  Ignatius,  when 
he  was  conducted  like  a  condemned  criminal  to  face  death 
in  Rome ;  and  that  they  both  received  letters  from  him. 
With  these  facts  in  our  mind  we  need  feel  no  doubt  that 
those  two  Churches,  and  many  others  like  them,  took  their 
origin  from  the  preaching  of  St.  Paul's  coadjutors  and 
subordinates  during  his  residence  in  Ephesus,  A.D.  54-56. 
Magnesia  inscribed  on  its  coins  the  title  "Seventh  (city) 
of  Asia,"   referring   doubtless  to  the  order  of  precedence 


The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia  175 

among  the  cities  as  observed  in  the  Common  Council  of  the 
Province,  technically  styled  Commune  Asice.  This  seems 
to  prove  that  there  was  some  special  importance  attached 
in  general  estimation  to  a  group  of  seven  representative 
cities  in  Asia,  which  would  be  an  interesting  coincidence 
with  the  Seven  Churches.  Of  the  seven  cities  implied  in 
the  Magnesian  title  five  may  be  enumerated  with  practical 
certainty,  viz.,  the  three  rivals  "  First  of  Asia,"  SmjTna, 
Ephesus  and  Pergamum,  along  with  Sardis  and  Cyzicus. 
The  remaining  two  seats  were  doubtless  keenly  contested 
between  Magnesia,  Tralleis  (one  of  the  richest  and  greatest 
in  Asia),  Alabanda  (chief  perhaps  in  Caria),  Apamea  (ranked 
by  Strabo,  p.  577,  next  to  Ephesus  as  a  commercial  centre 
of  the  Province)  and  Laodicea ;  but  apparently  at  some 
time  under  the  Empire  a  decision  by  the  Emperor,  or  by  a 
governor  of  the  Province,  or  by  the  Council  of  Asia,  settled 
the  precedence  to  some  extent  and  placed  Magnesia  seventh. 
Neither  Thyatira  nor  Philadelphia,  however,  can  have  had 
any  reasonable  claim  to  a  place  among  those  seven  leading 
cities  of  the  Province.* 

(5)  Another  city  which  can  hardly  have  failed  to  possess 
an  important  Church  when  the  Seven  Letters  were  written 
is  Cyzicus.  Not  merely  was  it  one  of  the  greatest  cities  of 
the  Province  (as  has  been  mentioned  in  the  preceding 
paragraph)  :  it  also  lay  on  one  of  the  great  routes  by  which 
Christianity  spread.  It  has  been  pointed  out  elsewhere 
that  the  early  Christianisation  of  Bith}-nia  and  Pontus  was 
not  due  (as  has  been  commonly  assumed)  to  missionaries 
travelling  by  land  from  Syria  across  Asia  [Minor  to  the 
Black  Sea  coasts.^  Those  cross-country  routes  from  south 
to  north  were  little  used  at  that  period  ;  and  it  was  only 
during  the  last  quarter  of  the  first  century  that  Cappadocia, 


176        XIV.    The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia 

which  they  traversed,  began  to  be  properly  organised  as  a 
Province;  for  before  A.D.  74  Cappadocia  was  merely  a 
procuratorial  district,  i.e.^  it  was  governed  in  the  interest  of 
the  Emperor  as  successor  of  the  old  native  kings  by  his 
procurator,  who  administered  it  on  the  old  native  lines. 
Moreover,  it  is  stated  that  inner  Pontus  was  hardly  affected 
by  Christianity  until  the  third  century,^  while  Pontus  on  the 
coast  was  Christianised  in  the  first  century  and  the  pagan 
ritual  had  almost  fallen  into  disuse  there  by  a.d.  112,  as 
Pliny  reported  to  Trajan.  Those  maritime  regions  there- 
fore must  have  been  Christianised  by  sea,  in  other  words  by 
passengers  on  ships  coming  from  "  the  parts  of  Asia  "  or 
from  Rome  itself.  On  the  route  of  such  ships  lay  Cyzicus, 
one  of  the  greatest  commercial  cities  of  Asia  Minor,  which 
must  have  attracted  a  certain  proportion  of  the  merchants 
and  passengers  on  those  ships.  It  was  along  the  great 
routes  of  international  communication  that  Christianity 
spread  first ;  and  Cyzicus  can  hardly  have  been  missed  as 
the  new  thought  swept  along  this  main  current  of  inter- 
course. But  Cyzicus  has  no  place  among  the  Seven 
Churches,  though  it  was  the  leading  city  and  capital  of  a 
great  district  in  the  north  of  the  Province, 

It  is  therefore  evident  that  those  Seven  must  have  been 
selected  out  of  a  much  larger  number  of  Churches,  some  of 
them  very  important  centres  of  thought  and  influence,  for 
some  reason  which  needs  investigation.  Now  it  is  inconceiv- 
able that  St.  John  should  simply  write  to  Seven  Churches 
taken  at  random  out  of  the  Province  which  had  been  so  long 
under  his  charge,  and  ignore  the  rest.  One  can  understand 
why  St.  Paul  wrote  (so  far  as  his  letters  have  been  pre- 
served) to  some  of  his  Churches  and  not  to  others  :  apart 
from  the  fact  that  he  doubtless  sent  more  letters  than  have 


The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia  177 

been  preserved,  he  wrote  sporadically,  under  the  spur  of 
urgent  need,  as  a  crisis  occurred  now  in  one  of  his  Churches, 
now  in  another.  But  St,  John  is  here  writing  a  series  of 
letters  on  a  uniform  plan,  under  the  spur  of  one  single  im- 
pulse ;  and  it  is  clearly  intended  that  the  Seven  Churches 
should  be  understood  as  in  a  way  summing  up  the  whole 
Province.  That  could  only  be  the  case  if  each  was  in  some 
way  representative  of  a  small  group  of  Churches,  so  that  the 
whole  Seven  taken  together  represented  and  summed  up 
the  entire  Province.  Similarly,  it  is  clear  that  the  Church 
of  Asia  taken  as  a  whole  is  in  its  turn  representative  of  the 
entire  Catholic  Church. 

Thus  we  can  trace  the  outline  of  a  complicated  and 
elaborate  system  of  symbolism,  which  is  very  character- 
istic of  this  book.  There  are  seven  groups  of  Churches  in 
Asia :  each  group  is  represented  by  one  outstanding  and 
conspicuous  member :  these  representatives  are  the  Seven 
Churches.  These  Seven  representative  Churches  stand  for 
the  Church  of  the  Province  ;  and  the  Church  of  the  Province, 
in  its  turn,  stands  for  the  entire  Church  of  Christ.  Corre- 
sponding to  this  sevenfold  division  in  the  Church,  the  out- 
ward appearance  and  envisagement  of  the  Divine  Author  of 
the  Seven  Letters  is  divided  into  seven  groups  of  attributes  ; 
and  one  group  of  attributes  is  assumed  by  Him  in  addressing 
each  of  the  Seven  Churches,  so  that  the  openings  of  the 
Seven  Letters,  put  together,  make  up  his  whole  outward 
and  visible  character. 

But  how  was  this  selection  of  the  Seven  Churches  ac- 
complished ?  There  are  only  two  alternatives ;  either  the 
selection  was  made  on  this  occasion  for  the  first  time,  or  it 
had  in  some  way  or  other  come  into  existence  previously, 
so  that  there  were  already  Seven  recognised  and  outstand- 


178        XIV.    The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia 

ing  Churches  of  Asia.  The  first  alternative  seems  generally 
to  have  been  accepted,  but  apparently  without  any  serious 
consideration.  It  seems  to  have  been  thought  that  the 
sacred  number,  Seven,  had  a  fascination  for  one  who  was 
so  much  under  the  dominion  of  symbolism  as  the  writer  of 
the  Apocalypse  evidently  was.  On  this  view,  being  pre- 
sumably fascinated  by  the  charm  of  that  number,  he  chose 
those  Seven  from  the  whole  body  of  the  Asian  Churches, 
and  treated  them  as  representative  in  the  first  place  of  the 
Province  and  ultimately  of  the  entire  Catholic  Church.  But 
it  is  impossible  to  acquiesce  contentedly  in  this  supposition. 
There  is  no  way  of  escaping  the  obvious  implication  in  i.  4 
and  i.  1 1 ,  that  those  Seven  were  already  known  to  the  world 
and  established  in  popular  estimation  as  "  the  Seven  Asian 
Churches,"  before  the  Vision  came  to  St.  John. 

It  is  therefore  necessary  to  adopt  the  second  alternative. 
As  the  Church  of  the  great  Province  Asia  gradually  con- 
solidated and  completed  its  organisation,  there  came  into 
existence  seven  groups,  and  at  the  head  or  the  centre  of 
each  stood  one  of  the  Seven  Churches.  This  process  had 
been  completed  up  to  this  point  before  St.  John  wrote,  and 
affected  the  imagery  of  his  vision. 

The  genesis  of  one  of  those  groups  can  be  traced  at  the 
very  beginning  of  the  Christian  history  of  the  Province. 
Already  in  A.D.  61  the  letter  to  Laodicea  and  the  letter 
to  Colossae  were,  as  has  been  indicated  above,  treated 
as  common  to  a  group  of  three  Churches  in  the  Lycus 
Valley.  But,  although  the  Colossian  letter  was  intended 
to  be  circulated,  it  was  written  to  the  Church  of  Colossae 
immediately  and  directly.  In  writing  that  letter  St.  Paul 
had  not  in  mind  the  group  of  Churches  :  there  stood  before 
his  imagination  the  Church  of  Colossae,  and  to  it  he  ad- 


The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia  179 

dressed  himself.  In  the  primary  intention  it  is  a  letter  to 
Colossae ;  in  a  secondary  intention  it  was  made  common 
to  the  whole  group.  The  same  may  be  presumed  to  have 
been  the  character  of  the  unknown  Laodicean  letter. 

The  opinion  has  been  advocated  by  some  scholars  that 
the  Laodicean  letter  was  the  one  which  is  commonly  known 
as  the  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  and  that  it  ought  to  be 
regarded  as  a  circular  letter,  copies  of  which  were  sent  to 
all  the  Asian  Churches ;  though  in  that  case  it  might  be 
expected  that  the  Colossians  would  receive  a  copy  direct. 
But  Professor  Rendel  Harris  has  thrown  serious  doubt  on 
the  view  that  Ephesians  was  a  circular  letter,  by  his  very 
ingenious  argument  that  it  must  have  been  written  as  an 
answer  to  a  question  (see  Expositor^  1898,  Dec.  p.  401  ff.) : 
in  that  case  it  would  be  addressed  to  the  Church  which 
had  proposed  the  question  to  St.  Paul. 

In  the  facts  just  stated  it  seems  to  be  implied  that  the 
chief  Churches  of  the  Lycus  Valley  were  already  in  A.D. 
61  'regarded  as  practically  common  recipients  of  a  letter 
addressed  to  one.  Their  interests  and  needs  were  known 
to  one  another,  and  were  presumed  to  be  very  similar; 
they  were  in  constant  intercourse  with  one  another,  and 
especially  Laodicea  and  Hierapolis  were  not  far  removed 
from  being  really  a  single  city  ;  and  evidently  it  was  the  aim 
and  policy  of  St  Paul  to  encourage  them  to  bear  vividly 
in  mind  their  common  character  and  sisterhood. 

Now,  starting  from  this  situation  in  A.D.  61,  and  taking 
into  consideration  the  creative  and  constructive  capacity 
which  the  Christian  Church  showed  from  the  beginning, 
we  must  infer  that  the  consolidation  of  the  three  Churches 
into  a  recognised  group  had  been  completed  before  the 
Seven  Letters  were  written.     In  a  vigorous  and  rapidly 


i8o        XIV.    The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia 

growing  body  like  the  Church  of  the  Province  Asia,  a  fact 
was  not  likely  to  lie  for  a  long  time  inactive,  and  then  at 
last  begin  actively  to  affect  the  growth  of  the  whole  organ- 
ism. Rather  we  must  conceive  the  stages  in  the  Chris- 
tian history  of  the  Lycus  Valley  as  being  three :  first,  the 
natural  union  and  frequent  intercommunication  of  three 
separately  founded,  independent  and  equal  Churches,  as 
appears  in  A.D.  6i  ;  secondly,  the  equally  natural  growing 
pre-eminence  before  the  eyes  of  the  world  of  the  leading 
city,  Laodicea,  so  that  letters  which  were  addressed  to 
one  city  were  still  intended  equally  for  all,  but  Laodicea 
was  the  one  that  was  almost  inevitably  selected  as  the 
representative  and  outstanding  Church  ;  thirdly,  the  pre- 
dominance and  presidency  of  Laodicea  as  the  adminis- 
trative head  and  centre  amid  a  group  of  subordinate 
Churches. 

How  far  this  development  had  proceeded  when  the  Seven 
Letters  were  written  it  is  hardly  possible  to  say  with  cer- 
tainty. We  can,  however,  feel  very  confident  that  the  third 
stage  had  not  yet  been  completely  attained.  The  Seven 
Letters  afford  no  evidence  on  this  point,  except  that,  by 
their  silence  about  any  other  Churches,  they  suggest  that 
Laodicea  was  already  felt  to  stand  for  and  therefore  to 
be  in  a  way  pre-eminent  in  its  group ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  spirit  of  the  early  Church  seems  to  be  incon- 
sistent with  the  view  that  Laodicea  had  as  yet  acquired 
anything  like  headship  or  superiority.  But  the  whole 
question  as  to  the  growth  of  a  fixed  hierarchy  and  order 
of  dignity  among  the  Churches  is  obscure,  and  needs 
systematic  investigation.'^ 

The  case  of  the  Lycus  Valley  Churches  must  be  regarded 
as  typical.     It  was  the  result  of  circumstances  common  to 


The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia  i8i 

the  entire  Province,  Hence,  the  inference  must  be  drawn 
that  a  series  of  similar  groups  was  formed  throughout 
Asia ;  that  the  Seven  Churches  stood  forth  as  in  a  certain 
degree  pre-eminent,  though  certainly  not  predominant,  in 
their  respective  groups  ;  and  that  thus  each  in  the  estima- 
tion of  the  Asian  world  carried  with  it  the  thought  of  the 
whole  group  of  which  it  formed  a  centre. 

The  subject,  however,  is  not  yet  complete.  The  char- 
acter of  that  first  group  in  the  Lycus  Valley  would  suggest 
that  the  groups  were  territorial,  marked  off  by  geographical 
limits.  But  a  glance  at  the  rest  of  the  Seven  shows  that 
this  is  not  the  case  :  there  is  here  evidently  nothing  like 
a  division  of  Asia  into  geographical  groups :  the  Seven 
Churches  are  a  circle  of  cities  round  the  west-central 
district  of  the  Province,  while  south,  east,  and  north  arc 
entirely  unrepresented. 

Again,  the  classification  is  not  made  according  to  rank 
or  dignity  or  importance  in  the  Province.  It  is  true  that 
the  first  three,  Ephesus,  Smyrna  and  Pergamum,  are  the 
greatest  and  outstanding  cities  of  the  Province,  which  vied 
with  one  another  for  the  title,  which  all  claimed  and  used 
and  boasted  about,  "  P'irst  of  Asia  "  :  there  were  three  cities 
"  First  of  Asia,"  just  as  there  were  two  First  of  Cilicia  and 
two  First  of  Bithynia  ;  and  Acts  xvi.  1 1  shows  that  Philippi 
claimed  to  be  "  FirsL  of  that  division  of  Macedonia,"  refus- 
ing to  acknowledge  Amphipolis,  the  official  capital,  as  su- 
perior to  itself.^  This  might  suggest  that  they,  as  the  three 
greatest  and  most  important  cities  of  the  Province,  were 
selected  as  centres  of  three  groups  of  Churches.  Also  it  is 
true  that  among  the  remaining  four,  two,  viz.,  Sardis  and 
LaodJcea,  were,  like  the  first  three,  the  heads  of  conventus 
{i.e.,  governmental  districts  for  legal  purposes).^     But  this 


1 82         XIV.    The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia 

principle  breaks  down  completely  in  the  case  of  Thyatira 
and  Philadelphia,  which  were  secondary  and  second-rate 
cities,  the  latter  in  the  conventus  of  Sardis,  the  former  in 
that  of  Pergamum.  The  Seven  Churches,  therefore,  were 
not  selected  because  they  were  planted  in  the  most  impor- 
tant and  influential  cities — had  that  been  the  case,  Cyzicus, 
Alabanda,  and  Apameia  could  hardly  have  been  omitted — 
nor  is  the  order  of  enumeration,  beginning  with  Ephesus, 
Smyrna,  and  Pergamum,  due  to  the  fact  that  those  were 
the  three  most  important  cities  of  Asia. 

In  order  to  complete  this  investigation,  we  must  try  to 
reach  some  clearer  conception  of  the  almost  wholly  un- 
known process  by  which  the  Church  of  the  Province  Asia 
gradually  worked  out  its  internal  organisation  during  the 
first  century.  At  the  beginning  of  that  process  all  those 
Churches  of  Asia,  apparently,  stood  side  by  side,  equal  in 
standing,  fully  equipped  with  self-governing  authority,  ex- 
cept in  so  far  as  they  looked  up  to  St.  Paul  as  their  founder 
(either  immediately  or  through  his  subordinate  ministers) 
and  parent,  director  and  counsellor :  their  relation  to  one 
another  was  in  some  degree  analogous  to  a  voluntary  union 
of  States  in  a  federal  republic.  Before  the  end  of  the 
century,  the  Province  was  divided  into  districts  with  repre- 
sentative cities,  and  Asia  was  advancing  along  a  path  that 
led  to  the  institution  of  a  regularly  organised  hierarchy 
with  one  supreme  head  of  the  Province. 

Now  let  us  try  to  imagine  the  situation  in  which  this 
process  occurred.  The  purpose  which  was  being  worked 
out  in  the  process  was — unity.  The  Christian  Church  was 
bent  on  consolidating  itself  in  its  struggle  for  the  spiritual 
lordship  of  the  Empire.  The  means  whereby  it  attained 
that  purpose,  as  has  been  shown  in  chapter  iii.,  lay  in  con- 


The  Seven  Churches  of  Asia  183 

stant  intercommunication,  partly  by  travel,  but  still  more 
by  letter.  The  result  which  was  brought  about  could  not 
fail  to  stand  in  close  relation  to  the  means  by  which  it  had 
been  worked  out.  And  a  glance  at  the  map  shows  that 
there  was  some  relation  here  between  the  means  and  the 
result.  Travelling  and  communication,  of  course,  are  in- 
extricably involved  in  the  road  system  :  they  are  carried 
out,  not  along  the  shortest  lines  between  the  various  points, 
but  according  to  the  roads  that  connect  them.  And  all  the 
Seven  Cities  stand  on  the  great  circular  road  that  bound 
together  the  most  populous,  wealthy,  and  influential  part  of 
the  Province,  the  west-central  region. 

It  is  only  fair  to  observe  that  that  great  scholar,  the  late 
Dr.  Hort,  pointed  the  way  to  the  true  principle  of  selection 
in  an  excursus  to  his  fragmentary,  posthumously  published 
edition  of  First  Peter.  In  that  excursus,  which  is  a  model 
of  scientific  method  in  investigation,  he  points  out  that  the 
reason  for  the  peculiar  order  in  which  the  Provinces  are 
enumerated  at  the  beginning  of  the  Epistle  lies  in  the  route 
along  which  the  messenger  was  to  travel,  as  he  conveyed 
the  letter  (perhaps  in  so  many  distinct  copies)  to  the  central 
cities  of  the  various  Provinces.  We  now  find  ourselves  led 
to  a  similar  conclusion  in  the  case  of  Asia:  the  gradual 
selection  of  Seven  representative  Churches  in  the  Province 
was  in  some  way  connected  with  the  principal  road-circuit 
of  the  Province. 

So  far  the  result  which  we  have  reached  is  unavoidable 
and  undeniable :  it  merely  states  the  evident  fact.  But,  if 
we  seek  to  penetrate  farther,  and  to  trace  the  process  of 
development  and  consolidation  more  minutely,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  enter  upon  a  process  of  imaginative  reconstruction. 
We  have  given  to  us  as  the  factors  in  this  problem,  the 


184        XIV.   The  Scz'en  Churches  of  Asia 

state  of  the  Asian  Church  about  A.D.  60,  and  again  its  state 
about  AD.  90  :  we  know  that  the  process  whereby  the  one 
was  transformed  into  the  other  within  those  thirty  years 
took  place  along  that  road  circuit,  and  was  connected  with 
correspondence  and  intercourse.  The  details  have  to  be 
restored  ;  and  as  this  necessarily  involves  an  element  of 
hypothesis,  it  ought  to  be  treated  in  a  special  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  SEVEN  REPRESENTATIVE  CITIES. 

The  analogous  case,  quoted  from  Dr.  Hort  in  the  con- 
clusion of  the  preceding  chapter,  must  not  be  pressed  too 
closely  or  it  might  prove  misleading.  The  fact  from  which 
we  have  to  start  is  that  the  First  Epistle  of  Peter  enumer- 
ates the  Provinces  in  the  order  in  which  a  messenger  sent 
from  Rome  would  traverse  them,^  and  that,  similarly,  the 
Seven  Churches  are  enumerated  in  the  order  in  which  a 
messenger  sent  from  Patmos  would  reach  them. 

In  the  former  case  the  letter  was  written  in  Rome,  and 
the  messenger  would,  in  accordance  with  the  regular  customs 
of  communication  over  the  Empire,^  sail  to  the  Black  Sea, 
and  land  at  one  of  the  harbours  on  the  north  coast  of  Asia 
Minor.  He  might  either  disembark  in  the  nearest  Province, 
and  make  his  way  by  land  round  the  whole  circuit,  ending 
in  the  most  distant ;  or  he  might  choose  a  vessel  bound  for 
the  most  distant  Province  and  make  the  circuit  in  the  reverse 
order.  There  are  some  apparent  advantages  in  the  latter 
method,  which  he  adopted.  He  landed  at  one  of  the  I'ontic 
harbours,  Amastris  or  Sinope  or  Amisos,  traversed  in  suc- 
cession Pontus,  Cappadocia,  Galatia  and  Asia,  and  ended 
in  Bithynia,  at  one  of  whose  great  harbours  he  would  find 
frequent  opportunity  of  sailing  to  Rome,  or,  if  he  were  de- 
tained till  navigation  had  ceased  during  the  winter  season, 
the  overland  Post  Road,^  through  Thrace  and  Macedonia, 

(185) 


1 86    XV.   Origin  of  the  Seven  Representative  Citiei 

would  be  conveniently  open  to  him.  Such  a  messenger 
would  visit  in  succession  one  or  more  of  the  leading  cities 
of  each  Province,  because  the  great  Imperial  routes  of  com- 
munication ran  direct  between  the  great  cities.  He  would 
not  concern  himself  with  distributing  the  letter  to  the  indi- 
vidual Christians  in  each  Province ;  that  task  would  be  left 
to  the  local  Church,  which  would  use  its  own  organisation  to 
bring  the  knowledge  of  the  message  home  to  every  small 
Church  and  every  individual.  His  work  would  be  supple- 
mented by  secondary  messengers  on  smaller  circuits  in 
each  Province  and  again  in  each  city.  In  no  other  way 
was  effective  and  general  distribution  possible. 

In  the  latter  case  the  letter  enclosing  the  Apocalypse  with 
the  Seven  Letters  was  written  in  Patmos,  and  the  messen- 
ger would  naturally  land  at  Ephesus,  and  make  his  round 
through  the  Seven  representative  Churches  as  they  are 
enumerated  by  the  writer.  The  route  was  clearly  marked 
out,  and  the  messenger  could  hardly  avoid  it.  He  would 
go  north  along  the  great  road  through  Smyrna  to  Perga- 
mum  (the  earliest  Roman  road  built  in  the  Province  about 
133-130  B.C.,  as  soon  as  Asia  was  organised).  Thence 
he  would  follow  the  imperial  Post  Road  to  Thyatira,  Sardis, 
Philadelphia  and  Laodicea,  and  so  back  to  Ephesus,  or  on 
to  the  East,  as  duty  called  him,  using  in  either  case  the  great 
Central  Route  of  the  Empire.  At  each  point,  like  the  other 
messenger,  he  would  trust  to  the  local  organisation  to  com- 
plete the  work  of  divulgation. 

In  those  two  circuits — the  general  Anatolian  circuit  of 
First  Peter,  and  the  special  Asian  circuit  of  the  Apocalypse 
— it  is  obvious  that  the  messengers  were  not  merely  ordered 
to  take  the  letter  (whether  in  one  or  in  several  copies)  and 
deliver  it,  using  the  freedom  of  their  own  will  as  to  the  way 


Origin  of  the  Seven  Representative  Cities     187 

and  order  of  delivery.  The  route  was  marked  out  for  them 
beforehand,  and  was  already  known  to  the  writers  when 
composing  the  letters.  The  question  then  arises  whether 
the  route  in  those  two  cases  was  chosen  expressly  for  the 
special  occasion  and  enjoined  by  the  writer  on  the  messen- 
ger, or  was  already  a  recognised  circuit  which  messengers 
were  expected  to  follow  in  every  similar  case.  Without 
going  into  minute  detail,  it  may  be  admitted  that  the  route 
indicated  in  First  Peter  might  possibly  have  been  expressly 
selected  for  that  special  journey  by  the  writer,  who  knew  or 
asked  what  was  the  best  route ;  and  thus  it  came  to  be 
stated  by  him  in  the  letter.  Equally  possibly  it  might  be 
known  to  the  writer  as  the  already  recognised  route  for  the 
Christian  messengers. 

But  the  former  supposition  could  not  be  applied  in  the 
case  of  the  Apocalypse ;  it  is  utterly  inconsistent  with  the 
results  established  in  chapter  vi.,  since  it  would  leave  un- 
explained the  fundamental  fact  in  the  case,  viz.^  that  the 
writer  uses  the  expression  "  the  Seven  Churches"  in  i.  4, 11, 
as  recognised  and  familiar,  established  in  common  usage,  and 
generally  understood  as  summing  up  the  whole  Christian 
Province.  Moreover,  the  messenger  in  First  Peter  was 
starting  on  a  journey  to  deliver  a  real  letter ;  but  in  the 
Apocalypse  the  letter-form  is  assumed  merely  as  a  literary 
device,  and  the  book  as  a  whole,  and  the  Seven  Letters  as 
part  of  it,  are  literary  compositions  not  really  intended  to 
be  despatched  like  true  letters  to  the  Churches  to  which 
they  are  addressed.  The  list  of  the  Seven  Churches  is 
taken  over,  like  the  rest  of  the  machinery  of  epistolary 
communication,  as  part  of  the  circumstances  to  which  this 
literary  imitation  has  to  accommodate  itself. 

Moreover  those  who  properly  weigh  the  indisputable  facts 


i88     XV.   Origin  of  the  Seven  Representative  Cities 

stated  in  chapter  vi.  about  the  growth  of  the  Laodicean 
district,  as  an  example  of  the  steady,  rapid  development  of 
early  Christian  organisation,  must  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  writer  of  the  Letters  cannot  have  been  the  first  to 
make  Laodicea  the  representative  of  a  group  of  Churches, 
but  found  it  already  so  regarded  by  general  consent.  Now 
what  is  true  of  Laodicea  must  be  applied  to  the  rest  of  the 
Seven  Churches. 

In  short,  if  there  were  not  such  a  general  agreement  as  to 
the  representative  character  of  the  Seven  Churches,  it  is 
difficult  to  see  how  the  writer  could  so  entirely  ignore  the 
other  Churches,  and  write  to  the  Seven  without  a  word  of 
explanation  that  the  letters  were  to  be  considered  as  refer- 
ring also  to  the  others.  St.  Paul,  who  wrote  before  that 
general  agreement  had  been  effected,  carefully  explained 
that  his  letter  to  Colossas  was  intended  to  be  read  also  at 
Laodicea,  and  vice  versa;  but  St.  John  assumes  that  no 
such  explanation  is  needed. 

Another  important  point  to  observe  is  that  the  Seven 
Cities  were  not  selected  simply  because  they  were  situated 
on  the  circular  route  above  described,  nor  yet  because 
they  were  the  most  important  cities  on  that  route.  The 
messenger  must  necessarily  pass  through  Hierapolis,  Tralleis 
and  Magnesia  on  his  circular  journey  ;  all  those  cities  were 
indubitably  the  seats  of  Churches  at  that  time ;  yet  none 
of  the  three  found  a  place  among  the  representative  cities, 
although  Tralleis  and  Magnesia  M-ere  more  important  and 
wealthy  than  Philadelphia  or  Thyatira.  What  then  was 
the  principle  of  selection  ? 

In  chapter  iii.  we  saw  that  the  Christian  Church  owed 
its  growth  and  its  consolidation  under  the  early  Empire 
to  its  carefulness  in  maintaining  frequent  correspondence 


Origin  of  the  Seven  Representative  Cities     189 

between  the  scattered  congregations,  thus  preventing  isola- 
tion, making  uniformity  of  character  and  aims  possible,  and 
providing  (so  to  say)  the  channels  through  which  coursed 
the  life-blood  of  the  whole  organism  ;  and  the  conclusion 
was  reached  that,  since  no  postal  service  was  maintained 
by  the  State  for  the  use  of  private  individuals  or  trading 
companies,  "  we  find  ourselves  obliged  to  admit  the  exist- 
ence of  a  large  organisation  "  for  the  transmission  of  the 
letters  by  safe.  Christian  hands.  Just  as  all  the  great 
trading  companies  maintained  each  its  own  corps  of  letter- 
carriers  itabellarii),  so  the  Christians  must  necessarily  pro- 
vide means  for  carrying  their  own  letters,  if  they  wanted  to 
write ;  and  this  necessity  must  inevitably  result,  owing  to 
the  constructive  spirit  of  that  rapidly  growing  body,  in  the 
formation  of  a  letter-carrying  system.  The  routes  of  the 
letter-carriers  were  fixed  according  to  the  most  convenient 
circuits,  and  the  provincial  messengers  did  not  visit  all  the 
cities,  but  only  certain  centres,  from  whence  a  subordinate 
service  distributed  the  letters  or  news  over  the  several  con- 
nected circuits  or  groups. 

Thus  there  emerges  from  the  obscurity  of  the  first  cen- 
tury, and  stands  out  clear  before  our  view  ab^ut  A.D.  80, 
some  kind  of  organisation  for  connecting  and  consolidating 
the  numerous  Churches  of  the  Province  Asia.  The  Province 
had  already  by  that  date  been  long  and  deeply  affected 
by  the  new  religion ;  and  it  must  be  presumed  that  there 
existed  a  congregation  and  a  local  Church  in  almost  every 
great  city,  at  least  in  the  parts  most  readily  accessible  from 
the  west  coast. 

Such  is  the  bare  outline  of  a  kind  of  private  messenger- 
service  for  the  Province,  similar  in  many  ways,  doubtless, 
to  the  private  postal  systems  which  must  have  been  main- 


190     XV.  Origin  of  the  Seven  Representative  Cities 

tained  by  every  great  trading  corporation  whose  operations 
extended  over  the  same  parts  (the  wealthiest  and  most 
educated  and  "  Hellenised  "  *  parts)  of  the  Province.  The 
general  character  of  this  messenger  service,  in  so  far  as  it 
was  uniform  over  the  whole  Roman  Empire,  has  been 
described  in  chapter  iii.  A  more  detailed  view  of  the 
special  system  of  the  Province  Asia  may  now  be  gained 
from  a  closer  study  of  the  character  and  origin  of  the  Seven 
Churches. 

When  letters  or  information  were  sent  round  the  Churches 
of  the  Province,  either  the  same  messenger  must  have  gone 
round  the  whole  Province,  and  visited  every  Church,  or 
several  messengers  must  have  been  employed  simultane- 
ously. The  former  method  is  obviously  too  inconvenient 
and  slow  :  the  single  messenger  would  require  often  to  go 
and  return  over  part  of  the  same  road,  and  the  difference 
of  time  in  the  receiving  of  the  news  by  the  earlier  and  the 
later  Churches  would  have  been  so  great,  that  the  advan- 
tages of  intercommunication  would  have  been  to  a  great 
degree  lost.  Accordingly,  it  must  be  concluded  that  several 
messengers  were  simultaneously  employed  to  carry  any 
news  intended  for  general  information  in  the  Province  of 
Asia. 

Again,  either  those  several  messengers  must  all  have 
started  from  the  capital  and  centre  of  communication,  viz.y 
Ephesus,  or  else  one  must  have  started  from  the  capital,  and 
others  must  have  started  on  secondary  routes,  receiving  the 
message  from  the  primary  messenger  at  various  points  on 
his  route.  The  former  of  these  alternatives  is  evidently 
too  cumbrous,  as  it  would  make  several  messengers  travel 
simultaneously  along  the  same  road  bearing  the  same 
message.     It  is  therefore  necessary  to  admit  a  distinction 


Origin  of  the  Seven  Representative  Cities     191 

between  primary  and  secondary  circuits,  the  former  starting 
from  Ephesus,  the  latter  from  various  points  on  the  primary 
circuit. 

Now,  if  we  combine  this  conclusion  with  our  previously 
established  results,  the  hypothesis  inevitably  suggests  itself 
that  the  Seven  groups  of  Churches,  into  which  the  Province 
had  been  divided  before  the  Apocalypse  was  composed, 
were  seven  postal  districts,  each  having  as  its  centre  or 
point  of  origin  one  of  the  Seven  Cities,  which  (as  was 
pointed  out)  lie  on  a  route  which  forms  a  sort  of  inner 
circle  round  the  Province. 

Closer  examination  of  the  facts  will  confirm  this  hypo- 
thesis so  strongly  as  to  raise  it  to  a  very  high  level  of 
probability :  in  fact,  the  hypothesis  is  simply  a  brief  state- 
ment of  the  obvious  facts  of  communication,  and  our  closer 
examination  will  be  merely  a  more  minute  and  elaborate 
statement  of  the  facts. 

The  Seven  Cities,  as  has  been  already  stated,  were 
situated  on  a  very  important  circular  route,  which  starts 
from  Ephesus,  goes  round  what  may  be  called  Asia  par 
excellence^  the  most  educated  and  wealthy  and  historically 
pre-eminent  part  of  the  Province.^  They  were  the  best 
points  on  that  circuit  to  serve  as  centres  of  communication 
with  seven  districts :  Pergamum  for  the  north  (Troas, 
doubtless  Adramyttium,  and  probably  Cyzicus  and  other 
cities  on  the  coast  contained  Churches) ;  Thyatira  for  an 
inland  district  on  the  north-east  and  east ;  Sardis  for  the 
wide  middle  valley  of  the  Hermus  ;  Philadelphia  for  Upper 
Lydia,  to  which  it  was  the  door  (iii.  8) ;  Laodicea  for  the 
Lycus  Valley,  and  for  Central  Phrygia,  of  which  it  was  the 
Christian  metropolis  in  later  time  ;  Ephesus  for  the  Cayster 
and  Lower  Maeander  Valleys  and  coasts ;  Smyrna  for  the 


192     XV.  Origin  of  the  Seven  Representative  Cities 

Lower  Hermus  Valley  and  the  North  Ionian  coasts,  perhaps 
with  Mitylene  and  Chios  (if  those  islands  had  as  yet  been 
affected). 

In  this  scheme  of  secondary  districts  it  is  evident  that 
some  are  very  much  larger  than  others.  The  whole  of 
Western  and  Central  Caria  must  be  included  in  the  Ephesian 
district.  The  North-eastern  part  of  Caria  would  more 
naturally  fall  in  the  Laodicean  district,  to  which  also  a 
vast  region  of  Phrygia  should  belong,  leaving  to  the  Phila- 
delphian  district  another  large  region,  Northern  and  West- 
central  Phrygia  with  a  considerable  part  of  Eastern  Lydia. 
But  it  is  possible,  and  even  probable,  that  Ephesus  was  the 
centre  from  which  more  than  one  secondary  circuit  went 
off:  it  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  only  one  secondary 
messenger  started  from  such  a  city.  So  also  with  Laodicea 
and  possibly  with  Philadelphia  and  Smyrna  and  others. 
An  organisation  of  this  kind,  while  familiar  to  all  in  its 
results,  would  never  be  described  by  any  one  in  literature, 
just  as  no  writer  gives  an  account  of  the  Imperial  Post- 
service  ;  and  hence  no  account  is  preserved  of  either. 
While  the  existence  of  a  primary  circuit,  and  a  number 
of  secondary  circuits  going  off  from  the  Seven  Cities  of  the 
primary  circuit,  seems  certain,  the  number  and  arrangement 
of  the  secondary  circuits  is  conjectural  and  uncertain. 

The  whole  of  the  arrangements  would  have  to  be  made 
to  suit  the  means  of  communication  that  existed  in  the 
Province  Asia,  the  roads  and  the  facilities  for  travel,  on 
which  chapter  iii.  may  be  consulted.  It  lies  apart  from  our 
purpose  to  work  it  out  in  detail ;  but  the  system  which 
seems  most  probable  is  indicated  on  the  accompanying 
sketch-map,  and  those  who  investigate  it  minutely  will 
doubtless  come  to  the  conclusion  that  some  of  the  circuits 


Origin  of  the  Seven  Representative  Cities     193 

indicated  are  fairly  certain,  but  most  can  only  be  regarded 
as,  at  the  best,  reasonably  probable,  and  some  will  probably 
be  found  to  be  wrong  when  a  mor6  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  Asian  road-system  (which  is  the  only  evidence  ac- 
cessible) has  been  attained.  It  will,  however,  be  useful  to 
discuss  some  conspicuous  difficulties,  which  are  likely  to 
suggest  themselves  to  every  investigator. 

The  first  is  about  Troas.  Considering  its  importance  as 
the  doorway  of  North-western  Asia,*^  one  might  at  first 
expect  to  find  that  it  was  one  of  the  Seven  representative 
Churches.  But  a  glance  at  the  map  will  show  that  it  could 
not  be  worked  into  the  primary  circuit  of  the  provincial 
messenger,  except  by  sacrificing  the  ease  and  immensely 
widening  the  area  and  lengthening  the  time  of  his  journey. 
On  the  other  hand  Troas  comes  in  naturally  on  that  second- 
ary circuit  which  has  Pergamum  as  its  origin.  The  Perga- 
menian  messenger  followed  the  Imperial  Post  Road  through 
Adramyttium,  Assos  and  Troas,  along  the  Hellespont  to 
Lampsacus.  There  the  Post  Road  crossed  into  Europe,"^ 
while  the  messenger  traversed  the  coast  road  to  Cyzicus, 
and  thence  turned  south  through  Poimanenon  to  Per- 
gamum. This  circuit  is  perhaps  the  most  obvious  and 
convincing  of  the  whole  series,  as  the  account  of  the  roads 
and  towns  on  it  in  the  Historical  Geography  of  Asia  Minor, 
ch.  E,  will  bring  out  clearly.^ 

The  second  difficulty  relates  to  Tralleis  and  Magnesia. 
As  the  primary  messenger  had  to  pass  through  them,  why 
are  they  relegated  to  the  secondary  circuit  of  Ephesus  ? 
Obviously,  the  primary  messenger  would  reach  them  last 
of  all ;  and  long  before  he  came  to  them  the  messenger  on 
a  secondary  Ephesfan  circuit  would  have  reached  them. 
Moreover,  it  is  probable  that  the  primary  circuit  was  not 


194     ^^-  Origin  of  the  Seven  Representative  Cities 

devised  simply  with  a  view  to  the  Province  of  Asia,  but 
was  intended  to  be  often  conjoined  with  a  further  journey 
to  Galatia  and  the  East,  so  that  the  messenger  would  not 
return  from  Laodicea  to  the  coast,  but  would  keep  on  up 
the  Lycus  by  Colossae  eastwards. 

Thirdly,  Caria  does  not  fit  well  in  the  secondary  districts 
and  circuits.  It  is  so  great  that  it  seems  to  require  for 
itself  one  special  circuit ;  and  if  so  Tralleis  was  the  one 
almost  inevitable  point  of  communication  with  the  primary 
circuit.  Yet  Tralleis  was  not  one  of  the  Seven  Churches. 
But  probably  a  distinction  must  be  made.  Western  Caria 
(Alabanda,  Stratonicea  and  the  coast  cities)  probably 
formed  a  secondary  circuit  along  with  the  Lower  Maeander 
Valley  ;  and  Ephesus  was  the  starting  point  for  it.  On  the 
other  hand  the  eastern  and  southern  part  of  Caria  lay  apart 
from  any  of  the  great  lines  of  communication  :  it  was  on  the 
road  to  nowhere  :  any  one  who  went  south  from  the  Maeander 
into  the  hilly  country  did  so  for  the  sake  of  visiting  it,  and 
not  because  it  was  on  his  best  way  to  a  more  distant  goal. 
Now  the  new  religion  spread  with  marvellous  rapidity  along 
the  great  routes  ;  it  floated  free  on  the  great  currents  of  com- 
munication that  swept  back  and  forward  across  the  Empire, 
but  it  was  slower  to  make  its  way  into  the  back-waters,  the 
nooks  and  corners  of  the  land  :  it  penetrated  where  life  was 
busy,  thought  was  active,  and  people  were  full  of  curiosity 
and  enterprise :  it  found  only  a  tardy  welcome  among  the 
quieter  and  less  educated  rural  districts.  Hence  that  part 
of  Caria  was  little  disturbed  in  the  old  ways,  when  most  of 
the  rest  of  Asia  was  strongly  permeated  with  Christianity. 

Fourthly,  an  immense  region  of  Northern  and  Eastern 
Phrygia  seems  to  be  quite  beyond  any  reasonably  easy 
communication  with  the  primary  circular  route. 


Origin  of  the  Seven  Representative  Cities     195 

As  to  Northern  Phrygia,  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether 
it  had  been  much  affected  by  the  new  religion  when  the 
Seven  Letters  were  written.  It  was  a  rustic,  scantily  edu- 
cated region,  which  offered  no  favourable  opportunity  for 
Christianity.  Some,  indeed,  would  argue  that,  as  Bithynia 
was  so  strongly  permeated  with  the  new  religion,  before 
A.D.  Ill,  Phrygia  which  lies  farther  south  and  nearer  the 
original  seats  of  Christianity,  must  have  been  Christianised 
earlier.  This  argument,  however,  ignores  the  way  in  which 
Christianity  spread,  viz.,  along  the  main  roads  and  lines 
of  communication.  The  same  cause,  which  made  Eastern 
Caria  later  in  receiving  the  new  faith  (as  shown  above),  also 
acted  in  Northern  Phrygia.  A  study  of  the  interesting 
monuments  of  early  Christianity  in  that  part  of  the  country 
has  shown  that  it  was  Christianised  from  Bithynia  (probably 
not  earlier  than  the  second  century),^  and  it  was  therefore 
left  out  of  the  early  Asian  system,  as  being  still  practically 
a  pagan  country.  Southern  Phrygia  lay  near  the  main 
Central  Route  of  the  Empire,  and  its  early  Christian  monu- 
ments show  a  markedly  different  character  from  the  North 
Phrygian  monuments,  and  prove  that  it  was  Christianised 
(as  was  plainly  necessary)  from  the  line  of  the  great 
Central  Highway.^*'  This  part  of  Phrygia  lay  entirely  in 
the  Upper  Maeander  Valley,  and  fell  naturally  within  the 
Laodicean  circuit. 

Eastern  Phrygia,  on  the  other  hand,  was  Christianised 
from  Iconium  and  Pisidian  Antioch,  and  was  therefore  not 
included  in  the  early  Asian  system  which  we  have  de- 
scribed. Doubtless,  during  the  second  century,  a  com- 
plete provincial  organisation  came  into  existence ;  and  all 
Christian  Asia  was  then  united.  But,  as  great  part  of 
Phrygia  had   for  a  long  time  been  outside  of  the  Asian 


196     XV.   Oi'igin  of  the  Seven  Representative  Cities 

system  of  the  Seven  Churches,  it  was  sometimes  even  in  the 
second  century  thought  necessary  for  the  sake  of  clearness 
to  mention  Phrygia  along  with  Asia  in  defining  the  Church 
of  the  whole  Province.  Plence  we  have  the  phrase  "the 
Churches  (or  Brethren)  of  Asia  and  Phrygia  "  in  Tertullian, 
adv.  Prax.  l,  and  in  the  letter  of  the  Gallic  Christians. 

In  the  case  of  Laodicea  it  seems  natural  and  probable 
that  two  secondary  circuits  must  be  admitted.  One  would 
include  the  Lycus  and  the  Upper  Maeander  Valleys  :  the 
messenger  would  go  along  the  great  Central  Highway 
and  trade  route  through  Colossse  to  Apameia,  and  thence 
through  the  Pentapolis  and  back  by  Eumeneia  to  Laodicea. 
Hierapolis,  being  so  close  to  Laodicea,  would  share  in  any 
Laodicean  communication  without  any  special  messenger. 
Another  secondary  circuit  would  follow  the  important 
Pamphylian  Road  (to  Perga  and  Attalia),  as  far  as  Cibyra, 
and  then  perhaps  keep  along  the  frontier  of  the  Province 
to  Lake  Ascania  ;  but  this  road  was  rather  a  rustic  byway, 
and  it  is  hardly  probable  that  the  frontier  region  was 
Christianised  so  early  as  the  first  century.  The  Cibyra 
district,  on  the  Pamphylian  Road,  was  more  likely  to  be 
penetrated  early  by  the  new  thought ;  and  the  name 
Epaphras  in  an  inscription  of  this  district  may  be  a  sign 
that  the  impulse  came  from  Colossas.^^ 

Thus  we  find  that  the  Seven  Letters  are  directed  to 
a  well-marked  district  embracing  the  greater  part  of  the 
Province  Asia  ;  and  natural  features,  along  with  indubitable 
epigraphic  and  monumental  evidence,  make  it  probable  that 
the  district  of  the  Seven  Letters  contained  the  entire  Asian 
Church  as  it  was  organised  about  the  end  of  the  first  century. 
The  importance  of  the  Seven  Letters  becomes  evident  even 
in  such  a  small  thou^^h  interesting  matter  as  this. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

PLAN  AND  ORDER  OF  TOPICS  IN  THE  SEVEN  LETTERS. 

Each  of  the  Seven  Letters  opens,  as  letters  in  ancient  time 
always  did,  by  stating  who  sends  the  message  and  to  whom 
it  is  sent.  But  the  exordium  does  not  take  the  form  that 
it  would  have  if  the  sender  of  the  message  were  the  writer 
of  the  letter,  viz.,  "  the  writer  to  the  person  addressed ". 
In  the  present  case  the  letters  are  written  by  John,  who 
imagines  himself  to  be  only  the  channel  through  which 
they  come  from  the  real  Author  ;  and  the  exordium  is 
altered  to  suit  this  situation.  The  writer  does  not  name 
himself;  but  after  naming  the  persons  addressed — To  the 
angel  of  the  Church  in  Ephesus — he  gives  a  brief  description 
of  the  Author  of  the  message.  The  seven  descriptions  all 
differ  from  one  another ;  and,  taken  together,  they  make 
up  the  complete  account  given  in  Rev.  i.  of  One  like  unto 
a  son  of  man.  The  Divine  Author  presents  Himself  in  a 
different  aspect  to  each  individual  Church ;  and  the  seven 
aspects  make  up  His  complete  personal  description,  as  the 
different  Churches  make  up  the  complete  and  Universal 
Church.  This  expresses  in  another  way  what  we  have 
tried  to  show  in  chapter  xiv.  :  the  Seven  Churches  make 
up  the  complete  Church  of  the  Province  Asia,  because 
each  of  them  stands  in  place  of  a  group  of  Churches,  and 
the  Church  of  the  Province  Asia  in  its  turn  stands  in  place 
of  the  Universal  Church  of  Christ, 

(197) 


198  XVI.  Plan  and  Order  of  Topics 

This  variation  from  the  ordinary  formula  of  ancient 
letters  is  connected  with  the  fact,  which  has  already  been 
pointed  out,  that  these  are  not  true  letters,  but  literary 
compositions,  or  rather  parts  of  one  larger  composition. 
Although  for  convenience  we  have  called  them  the  Seven 
Letters,  they  were  not  to  be  sent  separately  to  the  Seven 
Churches.  The  Apocalypse  is  a  book  which  was  never 
intended  to  be  taken  except  as  a  whole ;  and  the  Seven 
Letters  are  a  mere  part  of  this  book,  and  never  had  any 
existence  except  in  the  book.  The  Seven  Churches  had 
established  their  representative  position  before  the  book 
was  composed ;  and  that  is  assumed  throughout  by  the 
author.  They  stand  to  him,  in  their  combination,  for  the 
entire  Province,  and  the  Province  stands  to  him  for  the 
entire  Church  of  Christ ;  though,  when  he  is  writing  to 
Smyrna  or  Thyatira,  he  sees  and  thinks  of  Smyrna  or 
Thyatira  alone. 

As  to  the  brief  description  of  the  Divine  Author,  which 
is  prefixed  to  each  of  the  Seven  Letters,  there  is  a  special 
appropriateness  in  each  case  to  the  character  or  circum- 
stances of  the  Church  which  is  addressed.  To  a  certain 
extent  we  can  comprehend  wherein  this  appropriateness 
lies ;  but  there  is  probably  a  good  deal  which  escapes  us, 
because  our  knowledge  of  the  character  and  history  of  the 
Seven  Churches  is  so  incomplete.  From  this  appropriate- 
ness it  follows  that  the  complete  description  of  the  Divine 
Author,  which  is  made  up  of  those  seven  parts,  is  logically 
later  than  the  parts,  though  it  comes  first  in  the  book.  This 
appears  especially  in  the  Thyatiran  letter.  In  the  highly 
complex  plan  of  the  work,  every  detail  was  selected  separ- 
ately in  view  of  its  suitability  for  one  or  other  of  the  Seven 
Churches,  and  was  then  worked  into  its  place  in  the  full 


In  the  Seven  Letters  199 

description  in  the  first  chapter.  Yet  the  description  is 
complete :  the  writer  worked  up  the  parts  into  a  whole 
before  stating  them  separately  for  the  Seven  Churches. 

After  the  formal  heading  or  exordium,  each  of  the  Seven 
Letters  begins  by  a  statement  intimating  that  the  writer 
possesses  full  knowledge  of  the  character  and  position  of 
the  Church  which  he  is  addressing.  In  five  out  of  the 
seven  letters  this  intimation  begins,  I  know  thy  works;  but 
in  the  cases  of  Smyrna  and  Pergamum,  the  opening  is 
different :  /  know  thy  tribulation^  and  /  know  where  thou 
dwellest.  The  difference  is  evidently  due  to  their  peculiar 
circumstances.  He  who  wishes  to  prove  his  full  knowledge 
of  the  Church  in  Smyrna  says  that  he  knows  its  sufferings  ; 
because  these  were  the  striking  feature  in  its  history.  And 
in  Pergamum  the  most  prominent  and  distinguishing  charac- 
teristic lay  in  its  situation,  "  where  the  throne  of  Satan  is"  : 
by  that  situation  its  history  had  been  strongly  influenced. 
But  in  most  cases  what  is  essential  to  know  about  a  Church 
is  what  it  has  done ;  and  so  begin  all  the  other  five. 

As  was  stated  in  chapter  iii.,  the  letter  to  an  individual 
Church  passes  easily  into  an  *'  Epistle  General  "  to  the  whole 
Church,  for  it  embodies  general  principles  of  nature,  order, 
and  government,  which  are  applicable  to  all.  Similarly,  to 
apply  the  comparison  which  was  there  made,  the  Imperial 
Rescript  addressed  to  a  Province  or  to  its  governor  em- 
bodied general  principles  of  administration,  which  were 
afterwards  regarded  as  applicable  universally  (except  in  so 
far  as  they  were  adapted  to  an  exceptional  condition  of  the 
Province  addressed).  But  in  every  case,  when  an  individual 
Church  is  addressed,  as  here,  it  is  addressed  in  and  for  it 
itself,  and  its  own  special  individual  character  and  fortunes 
are  clearly  present  before  the  writer's  mind.     He  does  not 


200  XVI.  Plan  and  Order  of  Topics 

think  of  the  Smyrna  group  when  he  addresses  Smyrna, 
nor  is  he  thinking  of  the  Universal  Church  :  he  addresses 
Smyrna  alone ;  he  has  it  clear  before  his  mind,  with  all 
its  special  qualities  and  individuality.  Yet  the  group  which 
had  its  centre  in  Smyrna,  and  the  whole  Universal  Church, 
alike  found  that  the  letter  which  was  written  for  Smyrna 
applied  equally  to  them,  for  it  was  a  statement  of  eternal 
truths  and  universal  principles. 

There  was  undoubtedly  a  very  considerable  resemblance 
between  the  Seven  Cities  :  the  surroundings  in  v/hich  the 
Seven  Churches  were  placed  were  similar ;  and  accordingly 
the  character  of  all  was  in  a  superficial  view  similar.  In 
every  city  there  were  doubtless  Jews  of  the  nationalist  party, 
bitterly  opposed  to  the  Jewish  Christians  and  through  them 
to  the  Christians  as  a  body,  a  source  of  danger  and  trouble 
to  every  one  of  the  Churches  ;  but  the  Jews  are  mentioned 
only  in  the  letters  to  Smyrna  and  Philadelphia.  There 
were  Nicolaitans,  beyond  all  question,  in  every  Asian  con- 
gregation ;  but  they  are  alluded  to  only  in  the  Thyatiran 
letter  as  the  dominant  party  in  that  Church,  in  the  letter  to 
Pergamum  as  a  strong  element  there,  and  in  the  Ephesian 
letter  as  disapproved  and  hated  by  the  Church  of  Ephesus 
as  a  body.  Every  one  of  the  Seven  Churches  was  a  mis- 
sionary centre ;  but  Philadelphia  alone  is  depicted  as  the 
missionary  Church. 

Underneath  the  general  similarity  the  writer  and  the 
Author  saw  the  differences  which  determined  the  character, 
the  past  history,  and  the  ultimate  fate  of  all  the  Seven 
Churches  (as  described  in  chapter  iv.). 

But  the  differences  should  not  be  too  much  emphasised, 
or  exclusively  attended  to,  There  are  two  hostile  powers 
everywhere  present,  one  open  and  declared,  one  secret  and 


In  the  Seven  Letters  201 

lurking  within  the  camp ;  and  the  thought  of  these  is  never 
far  from  the  writer's  mind,  even  though  he  does  not  ex- 
pressly mention  them  in  every  letter. 

One  is  the  Imperial  power  and  the  Imperial  worship, 
which  the  writer  saw  plainly  to  be  the  power  of  Satan 
engaged  in  a  determined  attempt  to  annihilate  the  Church, 
but  doomed  beforehand  to  failure.  The  Church  and  the 
Imperial  worship  are  irreconcilable  ;  one  or  the  other  must 
be  destroyed  ;  and  the  issue  is  not  doubtful.  Since  the 
Imperial  power  has  now  actively  allied  itself  with  the  Im- 
perial cultus  in  this  conflict  against  truth  and  life,  it  has 
doomed  itself  to  destruction. 

The  other  enemy  is  the  Nicolaitan  principle.  The  oppo- 
sition to  the  Nicolaitans  is  the  chief  factor  in  determining 
the  character  and  form  of  the  Seven  Letters.  But  for  them 
there  would  probably  be  no  letters  to  the  Seven  Churches. 
The  rest  of  the  Apocalypse  is  occupied  with  the  triumph 
over  the  Imperial  Religion.  But  there  was  no  need  to 
warn  the  Churches  against  it :  it  was  a  sham,  doomed  to 
destruction,  and  already  conquered  in  every  martyrdom. 
The  one  pressing  danger  to  the  Churches  was  within  and 
not  without :  it  lay  in  their  weaknesses  of  nature,  and  in 
that  false  teaching  which  was  set  forth  with  the  show 
of  authority  by  some  prophets  and  leaders  in  the  Churches. 
Against  the  Nicolaitan  teachers  the  Seven  Letters  are  di- 
rected in  the  way  of  warning  and  reproof,  with  strenuous 
opposition  and  almost  bigoted  hatred.  Those  teachers  drew 
a  somewhat  contemptuous  contrast  between  their  highly 
advanced  teaching,  with  its  deep  thought  and  philosopliic 
insight,  and  the  simple,  uneducated,  unphilosophic  views 
which  St  John  championed.  They  gave  undue  emphasis 
to  the  Greek  aspect  of  Christianity;  and    in  its  practical 


202  XVI.  Plan  and  Order  of  Topics 

working  out  they  made  it  their  rule  of  life  to  maintain  the 
closest  possible  relations  with  the  best  customs  of  ordinary 
society  in  the  Asian  cities.  1  his  attempt  was  in  itself  quite 
justifiable ;  but  in  the  judgment  of  St.  John  (and  we  may 
add  of  St.  Paul  ^  also)  they  went  too  far,  and  tried  to  retain 
in  the  Christian  life  practices  that  were  in  diametrical 
opposition  to  the  essential  principles  of  Christianity,  and 
thus  they  had  strayed  into  a  syncretism  of  Christian  and 
anti-Christian  elements  which  was  fatal  to  the  growth  and 
permanence  of  Christian  thought. 

But  in  his  opposition  to  the  Nicolaitans  the  writer  does 
not  make  the  mistake  of  going  to  the  opposite  extreme, 
minimising  the  share  that  Greek  thought  and  custom  might 
have  in  the  Christian  life,  and  exaggerating  the  opposition 
between  Greek  education  and  true  religion.  He  holds  the 
balance  with  a  steady  hand ;  he  expresses  himself  in  a 
form  that  should  be  clear  and  sympathetic  to  the  Greek 
Churches  whom  he  was  addressing ;  he  gives  quiet  em- 
phasis to  the  best  side  of  Greek  education  in  letters  which 
are  admirable  efforts  of  literary  power ;  but  at  a  certain 
point  his  sympathy  stops  dead ;  beyond  that  point  it  was 
fatal  to  go. 

He  saw  the  whole  of  life,  and  not  merely  one  side  of  it ; 
and  he  was  not  misled  by  indiscriminate  opposition  to  the 
enemy,  however  strongly  he  hated  them.  He  would  have 
weakened  the  Church  permanently,  if  he  had  made  the 
mistake,  too  common  in  the  history  of  religion,  of  con- 
demning everything  that  the  other  side  championed.  He 
took  from  it  all  that  could  be  taken  safely,  gave  all  that  it 
could  give  to  train  the  religious  feeling  to  the  highest,  and 
did  everything  better  than  his  enemy  could. 

In  studying  St.  Paul  we  find  ourselves  forced  to  recognise 


In  the  Seven  Letters  203 

the  essential  agreement  of  his  views  on  this  question  with 
St.  John's  ;  ^  and  in  studying  St.  John  we  find  ourselves 
forced  to  the  same  judgment.  With  superficial  differences 
they  both  take  the  same  calm,  sane  view  of  the  situation  as 
a  whole,  and  legislate  for  the  young  Church  on  the  same 
lines.  Up  to  a  certain  point  the  converted  pagan  should 
develop  the  imperfect,  but  not  wholly  false,  religious  ideas 
and  gropings  after  truth  of  his  earlier  years  into  a  Christian 
character ;  but  there  was  much  that  was  absolutely  false 
and  fundamentally  perverted  in  those  ideas  ;  the  pagan 
religions  had  been  degraded  from  an  originally  better  form 
by  the  wilful  sin  and  error  of  men,  and  all  that  part  of  them 
must  be  inexorably  eradicated  and  destroyed.  The  deter- 
mining criterion  lay  in  the  idolatrous  element :  where  that 
was  a  necessary  part  of  pagan  custom  or  opinion,  there  was 
no  justification  for  clinging  to  it :  unsparing  condemnation 
and  rejection  was  the  only  course  open  to  a  true  Christian, 
Hence  arose  the  one  striking  contrast  in  outward  ap- 
pearance between  the  views  of  the  two  Apostles.  St.  Paul 
clung  to  the  hope  and  belief  that  the  Church  might  develop 
within  the  Empire,  and  find  protection  from  the  Imperial 
government.  St.  John  regarded  the  Imperial  government 
as  Antichrist,  the  inevitable  enemy  of  Christianity.  But  in 
the  interval  between  the  two  lay  the  precise  formulation  of 
the  Imperial  policy,  which  imposed  on  the  Christians  as  a 
test  of  loyalty  the  {lerformance  of  religious  ritual  in  the 
worship  of  the  Emperors.  The  Empire  armed  itself  with 
the  harness  of  idolatry;  and  the  principle  that  St.  Paul 
himself  had  laid  down  in  the  sharpest  and  clearest  terms  at 
once  put  an  end  to  any  hope  that  he  had  entertained  of 
reconciliation  and  amity  between  the  Church  and  the  exist- 
ing State. 


204  XVI.  Plan  and  Order  of  Topics 

Again,  the  Seven  Letters  repeatedly,  in  the  most  pointed 
way,  express  and  emphasise  the  continuity  of  history,  in 
the  city  and  the  local  Church.  The  Church  is  not  simply 
regard  :d  as  a  s?parat3  fact,  apart  from  the  city  in  which  it 
ha  •.  its  temporary  abode ;  such  a  point  of  view  was  impos- 
s  ble  and  su:h  a  thought  was  inconceivable  for  the  ordinary 
ancient  mind.  We  have  so  grown  in  the  lapse  of  centuries 
and  th  ^  greater  refinement  of  thought  as  to  be  able  to  hold 
apart  in  our  minds  the  two  conceptions  ;  but  the  ancients 
regarded  'he  State  or  the  city  and  its  religion  as  two  aspects 
of  one  thing.  So  again,  to  the  ancients  evry  association  of 
human  beings  had  its  relig'ous  side,  and  could  not  exist  if 
t!"iat  side  were  destroyed. 

The  literary  form  which  beyond  all  others  is  loved  by 
the  writer  of  the  Seven  Letters  is  comparison  and  contrast. 
Throughout  them  all  he  is  constantly  striking  a  balance 
between  the  power  which  the  Divine  Author  wields,  the 
gifts  that  he  gives,  the  promises  and  prospects  which  he 
holds  forth  to  his  own,  and  the  achievements  of  all  enemies, 
the  Empire,  the  pagan  cities,  the  Jews,  and  the  Nicolaitans. 
The  modern  reader  has  almost  everywhere  to  add  one  side 
of  the  comparison,  for  the  writer  only  expresses  one  side 
and  leaves  the  other  to  the  intuition  of  his  readers.  He 
selects  a  characteristic  by  which  the  enemy  prominent  in 
his  mind  was,  or  ought  to  be,  distinguished,  and  describes 
it  in  terms  in  which  his  readers  could  not  fail  to  read  a 
reference  to  that  enemy;  but  he  attributes  it  to  the  Divine 
Author  or  the  true  Church  or  the  true  Christian.  Thus  he 
describes  the  irresistible  might  that  shall  be  given  to  the 
Thyatiran  victor  in  terms  which  could  not  fail  to  rouse  in 
every  reader  the  thought  of  the  great  Empire  and  its 
tremendous  military  strength. 


In  the  Seven  Letters  205 

Examples  of  this  rhetorical  form  will  be  pointed  out  in 
every  letter;  and  yet  it  is  probable  that  many  more  were 
apparent  to  the  Asian  readers  than  we  can  now  detect 
The  thought  that  is  everywhere  present  in  the  writer's  mind 
is  how  much  better  the  true  Church  does  everything  than 
any  of  its  foes,  open  or  secret. 

One  example  may  be  given.  The  simple  promise  made 
by  the  Author  to  the  Smyrnaeans,  /  will  give  you  the  crown 
of  life ^  when  compared  with  the  address  which  Apollonius 
made  to  them,  is  seen  to  contain  implicit  allusion  to  a  feature 
of  the  city,  which  was  a  cause  of  peculiar  pride  to  the  citi- 
zens :  "the  crown  of  Smyrna"  was  the  garland  of  splendid 
buildings  with  the  Street  of  Gold,  which  encircled  the 
rounded  hill  Pages.  Apollonius  in  a  fully  expressed  com- 
parison advised  the  citizens  to  prefer  a  crown  of  men  to  a 
crown  of  buildings.  This  Author  leaves  one  member  of  the 
figure  to  be  understood  :  if  we  expressed  his  thought  in  full, 
it  would  be  "  instead  of  the  crown  of  buildings  which  you 
boast  of,  or  the  crown  of  men  that  your  philosophers  re- 
commend, /  will  give  you  the  crown  of  life". 

The  peroration  of  each  of  the  Seven  Letters  is  modelled 
in  the  same  way:  all  contain  a  claim  for  attention  and  a 
promise.  The  former  is  identical  in  all  Seven  Letters :  he 
that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  to  the 
Churches.  The  latter  is  different  in  every  case,  being 
adapted  to  the  special  character  of  each. 

The  claim  for  attention,  which  is  made  in  the  peroration 
of  every  letter,  is  perhaps  to  be  understood  as  in  part  apply- 
ing to  the  whole  Apocalypse,  but  in  a  much  greater  degree 
it  applies  to  the  advice  and  reproof  and  encouragement 
contained  in  the  individual  letter  and  in  the  whole  Seven 
Letters.     There  was  less  need  to  press  for  attention  to  the 


2o6  XVI.  Plan  and  Order  of  Topics 

vision  of  victory  and  triumph,  while  there  was  serious  need 
to  demand  attention  to  the  letter,  with  its  plain  statement 
of  the  dangers  to  which  the  Church  was  exposed.  Hence, 
while  the  claim  is  identical  in  all,  it  is  specially  needed  in 
each  letter. 

The  promise  made  to  the  victors  at  the  end  of  every  letter 
is  to  be  understood  as  addressed  partly  to  the  Christians  of 
the  city,  but  still  more  to  the  true  Christians  of  the  entire 
Church.  The  idea  that  the  individual  Church  is  part  of 
the  Universal  Church,  that  it  stands  for  it  after  the  usual 
symbolic  fashion  of  the  Apocalypse,  is  never  far  from  the 
writer's  mind  ;  and  he  passes  rapidly  between  the  two  points 
of  view,  the  direct  address  to  the  local  Church  as  an  in- 
dividual body  with  special  needs  of  its  own,  and  the  general 
application  and  apostroph:;  to  the  entire  Church  as  symbo- 
lised by  the  particular  local  Church. 

There  is  a  difference  among  the  letters  in  regard  to  the 
arrangement  of  the  peroration  :  in  the  first  three  the  claim 
for  attention  comes  before  the  promise,  in  the  last  four  it 
comes  after.  It  must  remain  doubtful  whether  there  is 
any  special  intention  in  this,  beyond  a  certain  tendency  in 
the  writer  towards  employing  variety  as  a  literary  device. 
Almost  every  little  variation  and  turn  in  these  letters,  how- 
ever, is  carefully  studied  ;  and  probably  it  is  through  deliber- 
ate intention  that  they  are  divided  by  this  variation  into 
two  classes  ;  but  what  is  the  reason  for  the  division,  and 
the  principle  involved  in  it,  is  hard  to  say.  The  first  thref 
ranked  also  as  the  three  greatest  cities  of  the  Province, 
vying  with  one  another  for  the  title  "  First  of  Asia,"  which 
all  three  claimed.  In  the  general  estimation  of  the  world, 
and  in  their  own,  they  formed  a  group  apart  (compare  Fig. 
lo,  p.   174),  while  the  others  were  second-rate.     ProbaWv 


In  the  Seven  Letters  207 


there  was  a  set  of  seven  leading  cities  in  public  estimation, 
as  we  saw  in  chapter  xiv,  ;  and  certainly  there  was  within 
that  set  a  narrower  and  more  famous  group  of  three.  It 
may  be  that  this  difference  almost  unconsciously  affected 
the  writer's  expression  and  produced  a  corresponding  varia- 
tion in  the  form,  though  the  variation  apparently  conveys 
no  difference  in  force  o;  meaning,  but  is  purely  literary  and 
formal. 

An  attempt  has  been  made  to  explain  the  variation  on 
the  ground  that  the  first  three  Churches  are  regarded  as 
having  on  the  whole  been  faithful,  though  with  faults  and 
imperfections  ;  whereas  the  last  four  have  been  faithless 
for  the  most  part,  and  only  a  "  remnant "  is  acknowledged 
in  them  as  faithful.  But,  while  that  is  true  of  three  out  of 
the  four,  yet  Philadelphia  is  praised  very  highly,  with  almost 
more  thoroughness  than  any  even  of  the  first  three,  except 
Smyrna ;  and  it  is  the  only  Church  to  which  the  Divine 
Author  says  "  /  have  loved  thee  ". 

So  far  as  grouping  can  be  detected  among  the  Seven 
Churches,  it  would  rather  appear  that  they  are  placed  in 
pairs.  Ephesus  and  Sardis  go  together  ;  so  again  Sm)  rna 
and  Philadelphia,  Pergamum  and  Thyatira;  while  the  dis- 
tant Laodicea  stands  by  itself,  far  away  in  the  land  of 
Phrygia.  Ephesus  and  Sardis  have  both  changed  and 
deteriorated  ;  but  in  Ephesus  the  change  amounts  only  to 
a  loss  of  enthusiasm  which  is  still  perhaps  recoverable ;  in 
Sardis  the  deterioration  has  deepened  into  death.  Smyrna 
and  Philadelphia  are  praised  far  more  unreservedly  than 
the  rest ;  both  are  poor  and  weak  ;  both  have  suffered  from 
the  Jews ;  but  both  are  full  of  life  and  vigour,  now  and 
forever.  Pergamum  and  Thyatira  have  both  been  strongly 
affected   by  Nicolaitanism  ;   both  are  compared   and   con- 


2o8  XVI.  Plan  and  Order  of  Topics 

trasted  with  the  Imperial  power  ;  and  both  are  promised 
victory  over  it.  Laodicea  stands  alone,  outcast  and  rejected, 
because  it  cannot  make  up  its  mind  whether  to  be  one  thing 
or  another. 

This  common  plan  on  which  all  the  Seven  Letters  are 
framed  would  alone  furnish  a  sufficient  proof  that  they  are 
not  true  letters,  but  literary  compositions  which  are  cast  in 
the  form  of  letters,  because  that  form  had  already  estab- 
lished itself  in  usage.     Now  the  writer  certainly  did  not 
select  this  form  merely  because  it  was  recognised  in  the 
pagan  literature.     He  selected  it  because  it  had  already 
become  recognised  as  the  characteristic  and  the  best  form  of 
expression  for  Christian  didactic  literature.     A  philosophic 
exposition  of  truth  was  apt  to  become  abstract  and  unreal ; 
the  dialogue  form,  which  the  Greeks  loved  and  some  of  the 
Christian  writers  adopted,  was  apt  to  degenerate  into  loose- 
ness and  mere  literary  display;  but  the  letter,  as  already 
elaborated  by  great  thinkers  and  artists  who  were  his  pre- 
decessors, was  determined  for  him  as  the  best  medium  of 
expression.     In  this  form  (as  has  been  shown  in  chapter 
iii.)  literature,  statesmanship,  ethics,  and  religion  met,  and 
placed  the  simple  letter  on  the  highest  level  of  practical 
power.     Due  regard  to  the  practical  needs  of  the  congrega- 
tion which  he  addressed  prevented  the  writer  of  a  letter 
from  losing  hold  on  the  hard  facts  and  serious  realities  of 
life.     The  spirit  of  the  lawgiver  raised  him  above  all  danger 
of  sinking  into  the  commonplace  and  the  trivial.     Great 
principles  must  be  expressed  in  the  Christian  letter.     And 
finally  it  must  have  literary  form  as  a  permanent  monument 
of  teaching  and  legislation. 

It  was  a  correct  literary  instinct  that  led  St.  John  to 
express  the  message  to  the  Seven  Churches  in  letters,  even 


In  the  Seven  Letters  209 

though  he  had  to  work  these  letters  into  an  apocalypse  of 
the  Hebraic  style,  a  much  less  fortunate  choice  on  pure 
literary  grounds,  though  (as  we  have  seen  in  chapter  viif.) 
it  was  practically  inevitable  in  the  position  in  which  the 
writer  was  placed.  In  each  letter,  though  it  was  only  a 
literary  Epistle  addressed  to  a  representative  Church,  the 
writer  was  obliged  to  call  up  before  his  mind  the  actual 
Church  as  he  knew  it ;  and  thus  he  has  given  us  seven 
varied  and  individualised  pictures  of  different  congregations. 

Probably  the  opposition  and  criticism  which  he  was  sure 
to  experience  from  the  Nicolaitans  stimulated  the  writer  to 
reach  the  high  standard  of  literary  quality  which  character- 
ises the  Seven  Letters  in  spite  of  the  neglect  of  traditional 
rules  of  expression.  He  uses  the  language  of  common  life, 
not  the  stereotyped  forms  of  the  historian  or  the  philo- 
sopher. As  Dante  had  the  choice  between  the  accepted* 
language  of  education,  Latin,  and  the  vulgar  tongue,  the 
popular  Italian,  so  St.  John  had  to  choose  between  a  more 
artificial  kind  of  Greek,  as  perpetuated  from  past  teaching, 
and  the  common  vulgar  speech,  often  emancipated  from 
strict  grammatical  rules,  but  nervous  and  vigorous,  a  true 
living  speech.     He  chose  the  latter. 

While  one  must  speak  about  and  admire  the  literary 
power  of  the  Seven  Letters,  the  writer  did  not  aim  at 
literary  form.  He  stated  his  thought  in  the  simplest  way  ; 
he  had  pondered  over  the  letters  during  the  lonely  years  in 
Patmos,  until  they  expressed  themselves  in  the  briefest  and 
most  direct  form  that  great  thoughts  can  assume  ;  but 
therein  lies  the  greatest  power  that  the  letter  can  attain. 
He  reached  the  highest  level  in  point  of  epistolary  quality, 
because  he  had  no  thought  of  form,  but  only  of  effect  on 
his  reader's  life. 


CHAPTER  XVIL 

EPHESUS :  THE  CITY  OF  CHANGE.» 

The  subject  of  the  present  chapter  is  the  early  Roman 
city,  the  Ephesus  of  St.  John  and  St.  Paul.  But  as  soon 
as  we  begin  to  examine  its  character  and  make  even  a 
superficial  survey  of  its  history,  it  stands  out  as  the  place 
that  had  experienced  more  vicissitudes  than  any  other  city 
of  Asia.  In  most  places  the  great  features  of  nature  and 
the  relations  of  sea  and  land  remain  permanent  amid  the 
mutations  of  human  institutions :  but  in  Ephesus  even 
nature  has  changed  in  a  surprising  degree.  To  appreci- 
ate its  character  as  the  city  of  change,  we  must  observe  its 
history  more  minutely  than  is  needed  in  the  other  cities. 
At  the  present  day  Ephesus  has  all  the  appearance 
of  an  inland  city.  The  traveller  who  wanders  among  its 
ruins  may  be  at  first  unconscious  of  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  sea.  He  beholds  only  a  plain  stretching  east  and 
west,  closed  in  on  the  north  and  south  by  long  lines  of 
mountain,  Gallesion  and  Koressos.  As  he  looks  to  the 
east  he  sees  only  ranges  of  mountains  rising  one  behind 
another.  As  he  looks  to  the  west  his  view  from  most  part 
of  the  city  is  bounded  by  a  ridge  which  projects  northwards 
from  the  long  ridge  of  Koressos  into  the  plain.  This  little 
ridge  is  crowned  by  a  bold  fort,  called  in  the  modern  local 
tradition,  St.  Paul's  Prison  :  the  fort  stands  on  the  hill  of 
Astyages  (according  to  the  ancient  name),  and  the  ridge 

(210) 


Ephesiis :   the  City  of  Change  2 1 1 

contains  also  another  peak  on  the  west,  called  the  Hermaion. 
The  ridge  and  fort  constitute  the  extreme  western  defences 
of  the  Greek  city,  which  was  built  about  287  B.C.  That  old 
Greek  tower,  owing  to  its  distance  and  isolation,  has  escaped 
intentional  destruction,  and  is  one  of  the  best  preserved 
parts  of  the  old  fortification.  From  its  elevation  of  450  feet 
it  dominates  the  view,  the  most  striking  and  picturesque 
feature  of  the  Greek  Ephesus, 

The  historian  of  Greece,  Professor  Ernst  Curtius,  was 
misled  by  the  appearance  of  the  city,  and  has  described  the 
fortunes  of  Ephe;us  as  a  city  separated  from  the  sea  by  the 
ridge  of  Astyages.^  This  misapprehension  partially  distorted 
his  view  of  Ephesian  history  and  coloured  his  picture,  which 
is  otherwise  marked  by  sympathetic  insight  and  charm  of 
expression.  It  is  the  merit  of  Professor  Benndorf  to  have 
placed  the  subject  in  its  true  light,  and  to  have  shown 
that  the  hisLory  of  Ephesus  was  determined  by  its  original 
situation  on  the  sea-shore  and  its  eagerness  to  retain  its 
character  as  a  harbour  in  spite  of  the  changes  of  nature, 
which  left  it  far  from  the  sea.  The  brief  sketch,  which 
follows,  of  the  history  of  Ephesus  is  founded  on  Benndorf's 
first  topographical  sketch,  and  on  the  map  prepared  for  his 
promised  fuller  study  of  the  subject.  The  present  writer 
is  indebted  to  his  kindness  for  a  copy  of  the  map  in  proof 
not  finally  corrected,  and  can  only  regret  that  this  sketch 
has  to  be  printed  without  access  to  the  historical  study 
which  is  to  accompany  it. 

The  most  impressive  view  of  modern  Ephesus  is  from  the 
western  side  of  Mount  Pion,  either  from  the  upper  seats  of 
the  Great  Theatre  or  from  a  point  a  little  higher.  The 
eye  ranges  westwards  over  the  streets  and  buildings  of  the 
Greek  and  Roman  city  (recently  uncovered  by  the  Austrian 


212       XVII.  Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change 


Fig.  II. — Conjectural  map  of  the  plain  of  Epnesus,  to  show  changes  in  the 
coast-line.  The  line  of  the  walls  of  the  Hellenic  {and  Roman)  city  is 
marked.  The  history  of  Ephesus  takes  place  between  the  hill  of  St, 
jfohn  (Ayassoluk)  and  the  hill  of  St.  Paul  (Astyages).  The  sea  in 
I00-200  A.D.  probably  came  m/  to  about  the  valley  opening  down  from 
Ortygia  (p.  233). 


3    uZ 

o    o 

^  — 


H  ^ 


Ephesus:   the  City  of  Change  213 

Archaeological  Institute  in  excavations  extending  over 
many  years  and  conducted  with  admirable  skill),  and  across 
the  harbour  to  the  hill  of  Astyages  :  south-west  the  view  is 
bounded  by  the  long  ridge  of  Koressos,  along  the  front 
crest  of  which  runs  the  south  wall  of  the  Greek  city :  north- 
west one  looks  across  the  level  plain  to  the  sea,  full  six 
miles  away,  and  to  the  rocky  ridge  that  projects  from 
Mount  Gallesion  and  narrows  the  sea-gates  of  the  valley : 
northward  lie  the  level  plain  and  the  steep  slopes  of  Galle- 
sion. The  mouth  of  the  river  is  hidden  from  sight  behind 
the  hill  of  Astyages.     Plate  I. 

But  a  large  and  important  part  of  ancient  Ephesus  is 
excluded  from  that  view,  and  can  be  seen  only  by  ascend- 
ing to  the  top  of  the  twin-peaked  Pion,  which  commands 
the  view  on  all  sides.  The  view  from  the  upper  seats  of 
the  Theatre  may  be  supplemented  by  looking  east  from  the 
northern  edge  of  Pion,  beside  the  Stadium,  or  still  better 
from  the  prominent  rock  (cut  into  an  octagonal  form,  pro- 
bably to  serve  a  religious  purpose)  which  stands  in  the 
plain  about  fifty  yards  in  front  of  the  north-west  corner  of 
Pion  and  of  the  Stadium.  From  either  of  these  points  one 
looks  north-east  and  east  over  the  valley  and  the  site  of  the 
great  Temple  of  Artemis  to  the  Holy  Hill  of  Ayassoluk, 
which  overhung  the  Temple,  and  to  the  piled-up  ranges 
of  mountains  beyond.     Plate  H. 

The  modern  visitor  to  Ephesus  rarely  finds  time  or  has 
inclination  to  visit  St.  Paul's  Prison  :  the  name  is  traditional 
in  the  locality,  but  though  the  tower  was  certainly  in  exist- 
ence at  the  time  of  St.  Paul's  residence  in  the  city,  there  is 
no  reason  to  think  that  he  was  ever  imprisoned  in  Ephesus. 
It  is,  however,  quite  probable  that  in  the  Byzantine  time 
the  Apostle's  name  was  attached  to  the  hill  and  fort  in 


214       XVII.  Ephesus :   the  City  of  Change 

place  of  the  older  name  Astyages.  Not  merely  does  this 
western  hill  permit  a  survey  over  the  city  and  valley  almost 
equal  in  completeness  to  the  view  from  Pion  :  there  is  also 
a  remarkable  phenomenon  observable  here  and  nowhere 
else  in  Ephesus.  At  the  foot  of  the  hill  lies  the  ancient 
harbour,  now  a  marsh  dense  with  reeds.  When  a  wind 
blows  across  the  reeds,  there  rises  to  the  hill-top  a  strange 
vast  volume  of  sound  of  a  wonderfully  impressive  kind  ;  the 
present  writer  has  sat  for  several  hours  alone  on  the  summit, 
spell-bound  by  that  unearthly  sound,  until  the  approach  of 
sunset  and  the  prospect  of  a  three  hours'  ride  home  com- 
pelled departure. 

In  ancient  times  by  far  the  most  impressive  view  of 
Ephesus  was  that  which  unfolded  itself  before  the  eyes  of 
the  voyager  from  the  west.  But  the  ch.in;;es  that  time  has 
wrought  have  robbed  the  modern  traveller  of  that  view. 
The  ancient  traveller,  official  or  scholar,  trader  or  tourist, 
coming  across  the  ^gean  Sea  from  the  west,  between  Chios 
and  Samos,  sailed  into  Ephesus.  The  modern  shore  is  a 
harbourless  line  of  sandy  beach,  unapproachable  by  a  ship. 

The  plain  of  Ephesus  is  distinctly  broader  near  the  city 
than  it  is  at  the  present  sea-coast.  The  narrowness  of  the 
entrance,  what  may  be  called  the  sea-gate  of  the  valley,  has 
been  an  important  factor  in  determining  its  history.  Some 
miles  above  the  city  the  valley  is  again  narrowed  by  ridges 
projecting  from  the  mountains  of  Gallesion  and  Koressoi-. 
In  this  narrow  gap  are  the  bridges  by  which  the  railv/ay 
and  the  road  from  Smyrna  cross  the  Cayster,  whose  banks 
here  are  now  only  ten  feet  above  sea  level,  though  the  direct 
distance  to  the  sea  is  ten  kilometres  and  the  river  course  is 
fully  sixteen  or  twenty  kilometres.  Between  these  upper 
or  eastern  narrows  and  the  modern  sea-coast  lies  the  pic- 


r" 


^^ 


^« 


Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change  2 1 5 

turesque  Ephesian  plain,  once  the  Gulf  of  Ephesus.  The 
river  Cayster  has  gradually  silted  up  the  gulf  to  the  outer 
coast-line  beyond  the  ends  of  the  mountains,  and  has  made 
Ephesus  seem  like  an  inland  city,  whereas  Strabo  in  A.D. 
20  describes  it  as  a  city  of  the  coast. 

But  about  1 100  B.C.  the  sea  extended  right  up  to  the 
narrows  above  Ephesus.  Greek  tradition  in  the  valley, 
which  can  hardly  have  reached  back  farther  than  1200  B.C., 
remembered  that  state  of  things,  when  the  large  rocky 
hill,  two  kilometres  north  of  the  Roman  city,  across  the 
Cayster,  was  an  island  named  Syria,  and  the  whole  Ephesian 
valley  was  an  arm  of  the  sea,  dotted  with  rocky  islets,  and 
bordered  by  picturesque  mountains  and  wooded  promon- 
tories. Near  the  south-eastern  end  of  the  gulf,  on  the 
sea-shore,  stood  the  shrine  of  the  Great  Goddess,  the 
Mother,  protector,  teacher,  and  mistress  of  a  simple  and 
obedient  people.  There  was  no  city  at  that  time  ;  but  the 
people,  Lelegians  and  Carians,  dwelt  after  the  Anatolian 
fashion  in  villages,  and  all  looked  for  direction  and  govern- 
ment to  the  Goddess  and  to  the  priests  who  declared  her 
will.  Ephesus  even  then  had  some  maritime  interests, 
directed,  like  everything  else,  by  the  Goddess  herself 
through  her  priests.  Hence,  even  when  the  Temple  was 
far  distant  from  the  receding  sea-shore,  a  certain  body  of 
shipmen  (vav^aTovvTG<;)  was  attached  to  its  service,  through 
the  conservatism  of  a  religion  which  let  no  hieratic  institu- 
tion die.  The  hill  of  Ayassoluk,  between  the  Temple  and 
the  railway  station,  was  a  defensive  centre  close  at  hand 
for  the  servants  of  the  Goddess.  History  shows  that  it  was 
the  Holy  Hill,  though  that  title  is  never  recorded  in  our 
scanty  authorities. 

The  sense  of  the  holiness  of  this  hill,  and  of  the  low 


2i6        XVII.  Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change 

ground  beneath  its  western  slope,  was  never  wholly  lost 
amid  all  the  changes  of  religion  that  occurred  in  ancient 
and  mediaeval  times.  On  the  hill  Justinian's  great  Church 
of  St.  John  Theol6gos  was  built ;  the  mediaeval  town  was 
called  Agios  Theologos  or  Ayo-Thol6go,  the  Turkish  Ayas- 
soluk ;  and  the  coins  of  a  Seljuk  principality,  whose  cen- 
tre was  at  this  town,  bear  the  legend  in  mediaeval  Latin 
Moneta  Que  Fit  In  Theologo?  Between  the  church  and 
the  old  temple  of  the  goddess  stands  the  splendid  mosque 
of  Isa  Bey.  The  modern  traveller,  standing  on  the  southern 
edge  of  the  large  hole,  at  the  bottom  of  which  Mr.  Wood 
found  the  temple  buried  thirty  feet  deep,  looks  over  temple 
and  mosque  to  the  Holy  Hill  and  Church  of  Ayassoluk,  as 
shown  in  Plate  HI.  All  the  sacred  places  of  all  the  religions 
are  close  together. 

The  site  of  the  temple  was  only  found  after  many  years 
of  search.  Those  who  know  the  spirit  of  Anatolian  religion, 
and  the  marvellous  persistence  with  which  it  clings  to 
definite  localities,  would  have  looked  for  it  beside  the 
mosque,  the  hill  and  the  church.  But  it  was  sought  every- 
where except  in  the  right  place.  Professor  Kiepert  marked 
it  conjecturally  on  his  plan  of  Ephesus  out  in  the  open 
plain  near  the  Cayster,  two  kilometres  west  of  Ayassoluk  ; 
and  Mr.  Wood  spent  several  years  and  great  sums  of  money 
digging  pits  all  over  the  plain.  Afterwards,  he  went  to 
the  city,  searching  the  public  buildings  for  inscriptions 
which  might  by  some  chance  allude  to  the  temple,  and  at 
last  found  in  the  Great  Theatre  a  long  inscription  which 
mentioned  a  procession  going  out  from  the  Magnesian  Gate 
to  the  temple.  He  went  to  the  gate,  and  followed  up  the 
road,  which  lay  deep  beneath  the  ground,  till  he  found  the 
sacred  precinct  and  finally  the  temple. 


Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change  217 

Yet  this  was  not  the  earliest  Ephesian  sanctuary  and 
home  of  the  goddess.  In  her  oldest  form  she  was  a  goddess 
of  the  free  wild  life  of  nature,  and  her  first  home  was  in  the 
southern  mountains  near  the  place  marked  Ortygia  on  the 
map,  p.  212.  Thence  she  migrated  to  dwell  near  her  people 
in  their  more  civilised  homes  on  the  plain,  or  rather  she,  as 
the  Mother  and  the  Queen-bee,  guided  her  swarming  people 
to  their  new  abodes,  and  taught  them  how  to  adapt  them- 
selves to  new  conditions.  But  her  love  for  her  favourite 
wild  animals,  who  had  lived  round  her  old  home  among 
the  hills,  always  continued  ;  and  two  stags  often  accompany 
her  idol,  standing  one  on  each  side  of  it :  see  Fig.  10,  p. 
174,  Fig.  26,  p.  364,  and  Fig.  17,  p.  231  ;  also  p.  264. 

But  her  old  home  among  the  mountains  was  always 
sacred.  There  were  there  a  number  of  temples,  ancient 
and  recent ;  an  annual  Panegj^ris  was  held  there,  at  which 
there  was  much  competition  among  the  young  nobles  of 
Ephesus  in  splendour  of  equipment ;  and  Mysteries  and 
sacred  banquets  were  celebrated  by  an  association  or  re- 
ligious club  of  Kouretes.  The  myth  connected  the  birth  of 
Artemis  with  this  place  ;  and  in  a  sense  it  was  the  birthplace 
of  the  goddess  and  her  first  Ephesian  home. 

In  Christian  times  the  holiness  of  this  locality  was  main- 
tained. The  Mother  of  God  was  still  associated  with  it, 
though  the  birth  of  God  could  no  longer  be  placed  there. 
The  legend  grew  that  she  had  come  to  Ephesus  and  died 
there ;  and  her  home  and  grave  were  known.  This  legend 
is  at  least  as  old  as  the  Council  held  in  Ephesus  A.D,  431. 
After  the  Greek  Christians  of  Ephesus  had  fled  to  the 
eastern  mountains  and  settled  in  the  village  of  Kirkindji 
they  celebrated  an  annual  pilgrimage  and  festival  at  the 
shrine  of  the  Mother  of  God,  the  Virgin  of  the  Gate,  Panagia 


2i8       XVII.  Ephestts :  the  City  of  Change 

Kapulu.  The  Christian  shrine  was  at  a  h'ttle  distance  from 
Ortygia ;  both  were  under  the  peak  of  Solmissos  (Ala- 
Dagh),  but  Ortygia  was  on  the  west  side,  while  the  Panagia 
was  on  the  north  side  higher  up  the  mountain  ;  both  peak 
and  Panagia  He  outside  our  map  (p.  212),  and  even  Ortygia 
is  strictly  outside  the  southern  limit,  though  the  name 
has  been  squeezed  in. 

The  home  and  grave  of  the  Mother  of  God  have  been 
recently  discovered  by  the  Roman  Catholics  of  Smyrna, 
aided  by  visions,  prayers  and  faith  ;  and  the  attempt  has 
been  made  in  the  last  ten  years  to  restore  the  Ephesian 
myth  to  its  proper  place  in  the  veneration  of  the  Catholic 
Church.  The  story  is  interesting,  but  lies  beyond  our  sub- 
ject.* What  concerns  us  is  to  observe  the  strong  vitality  of 
local  religion  in  Asia  Minor  amid  all  changes  of  outward 
form.  The  religious  centre  is  moved  a  little  to  and  fro,  but 
always  clings  to  a  comparatively  narrow  circle  of  ground. 

The  date  and  even  the  order  of  the  successive  stages  in 
the  history  of  the  Ephesian  valley  cannot  as  yet  be  fully 
determined — though  Professor  iienndorfs  expected  memoir 
will  doubtless  throw  much  light  on  them.  About  iioo  B.C. 
the  first  Greek  colonists,  coming  from  Athens,  expelled 
most  of  the  older  population  and  founded  a  joint  city  of 
Greeks  and  the  native  remnant  beside  the  shrine  of  their 
own  Athena,  including  in  their  city  also  a  tract  along  the 
skirts  of  Koressos.  Its  exact  situation  has  not  been  deter- 
mined ;  but  it  was  probably  identical  with  a  district  called 
Smyrna,  which  lay  betv/een  Koressos  and  Pion,  partly 
inside,  partly  south-east  from,  the  Hellenic  Ephesus. 

For  four  centuries  this  was  the  situation  of  Ephesus. 
There  was  an  Ionian  city  bearing  that  name  on  the  slopes  of 
Mount  Koressos,  and  above  a  mile  north  was  the  Temple  of 


Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change  219 

the  Great  Goddess  Artemis.  The  Greek  colonists  in  their 
new  land  naturally  worshipped  the  deity  who  presided  over 
the  land.  Gradually  they  came  to  pay  more  refipect  to  her 
than  to  their  own  patroness  and  guardian  deity  Athena, 
who  had  led  them  across  the  sea  from  Athens.  The  holy 
village  around  the  Hieron  of  Artemis  can  hardly  have 
existed  in  this  period  :  Ephesus  was  moved  to  the  southern 
position  and  transformed  into  a  Greek  city.  The  population 
of  the  city  was  at  first  divided  into  three  Tribes,  of  which 
Epheseis  the  first  was  evidently  the  Anatolian  division,  while 
Euonymoi,  containing  the  Athenian  colonists,  was  only  the 
second  (see  p.  234). 

The  sea  gradually  retreated  towards  the  west  during  this 
period ;  and  the  Temple  of  Artemis  was  now  a  sanctuary 
within  a  large  sacred  precinct  in  the  plain.  But  the  God- 
dess, though  worshipped  by  the  Greeks,  was  not  trans- 
formed into  a  Greek  deity.  She  remained  an  Anatolian 
deity  in  character  and  in  ritual.  The  Divine  nature  does 
not  change. 

A  new  era  began  after  560  B.C.,  when  Ephesus  was 
conquered  by  Croesus.  The  city  was  now  attached  to  the 
Temple  of  Artemis ;  and  the  population  was  moved  back 
from  the  higher  ground  and  dwelt  once  more  beside  the 
Temple.  Smyrna,  the  deserted  site  of  the  Ionian  Ephesus, 
was  now  behind  the  city  (as  Hipponax  siys). 

The  change  marked  the  entire  triumph  of  the  Asiatic 
or  Anatolian  element  over  the  Greek  in  the  Ephesian  popu- 
lation. The  Anatolian  element  had  always  been  strong  in 
the  population  of  the  Greek  city  ;  the  Ephesian  Goddess  was 
henceforth  the  national  deity  of  the  city,  the  patroness  of  the 
family  and  municipal  life.  Thus,  the  change  of  situation 
about  550  B.C.  accompanied  a  change  in  spirit  and  character. 


220       XVII.  EphesMS :  the  City  of  Change 

Ephesus  was  not,  however,  reduced  entirely  to  the  pure 
Anatolian  village  system.  It  was  not  a  mere  union  of 
villages  with  the  Temple  as  the  only  centre ;  it  was  a  city 
with  a  certain  organisation  and  a  certain  form  of  municipal 
government.  Power  was  apportioned  to  the  different  sections 
of  the  population  by  the  usual  Greek  device  of  a  division 
into  Tribes  :  each  Tribe  had  one  vote,  and  a  more  numerous 
body  in  one  Tribe  had  no  more  power  than  a  small  number 
of  citizens  in  another.  It  had  its  own  acropolis,  probably 
the  hill  of  Ayassoluk,  overhanging  the  Temple  on  the  north- 


FiG.  12. — A,  B.  Coin  of  the  Anatolian  Ephesus  (p.  222). 

east.  It  struck  its  own  coins  in  silver  and  electrum  (the 
sure  proof  of  administrative  independence  as  a  city) ;  but 
they  were  entirely  hieratic  in  character  and  types,  and  for 
nearly  three  centuries  after  560  it  must  be  ranked  rather  as 
an  Anatolian  town  than  as  a  Greek  city. 

It  was,  indeed,  forced,  after  479,  to  join  the  union  of  Greek 
States  which  was  called  the  Delian  Confederacy ;  but  it 
seceded  at  the  earliest  opportunity ;  and  the  Goddess  was 
alwa)'S  inclined  to  side  with  the  Persians  against  the  Greeks, 
and  with  oligarchic  Sparta  against  democratic  Athens. 


Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change 


221 


With  the  conquest  of  Asia  by  Alexander  the  Great,  after 
335,  the  Greek  spirit  began  to  strengthen  itself  in  Ephesus 
and  in  general  throughout  the  country.  This  is  first  per- 
ceptible in  the  coinage.  The  bee,  the  sacred  insect  and  the 
symbol  of  the  Great  Goddess,  had  hitherto  always  been  the 
principal  type  on  Ephesian  coins.  Now  about  295  B.C.  a 
purely  Greek  type,  the  head  of  the  Greek  Artemis,  the 
Virgin  "  Queen  and  Huntress  chaste  and  fair,"  was  substi- 
tuted for  the  bee  on  the  silver  coins,  while  the  less  honour- 
able copper  coinage  retained  the  old  hieratic  types. 


Fig.  13. — A,  B.  Coin  of  the  Hellenic  city  Ephesus. 

I 

The  importance  of  this  change  of  type  arises  from  the 
character  of  the  Great  Goddess.  She  is  the  expression  of 
a  religious  belief,  which  regarded  the  life  of  God  as  embody- 
ing and  representing  the  life  of  nature,  and  proceeding 
according  to  the  analogy  of  the  natural  world,  so  that  in 
the  drama  of  Divine  life  there  is  a  God-Father,  a  Goddess- 
Mother,  and  a  Son  or  a  Daughter  (the  Maiden  Kora  or 
other  various  ideas),  born  again  and  again  in  the  annual 
cycle  (or  sometimes  in  longer  cycles)  of  existence.  The 
mutual  relations  of  those  beings  were  often  pictured  in  the 


222        XVII.  Ephesus:  the  City  of  Change 

Divine  drama  according  to  the  analogy  of  some  kind  of 
earthly  life.  In  the  Ephesian  ceremonial  the  life  of  the 
bee  was  the  model  :  the  Great  Goddess  was  the  queen-bee, 
the  mother  of  her  people,  and  her  image  was  in  outline 
not  unlike  the  bee,  with  a  grotesque  mixture  of  the  human 
form :  her  priestesses  were  called  Melissai  (working-bees), 
and  a  body  of  priests  attached  to  the  Temple  was  called 
Essenes  (the  drones).  The  shape  of  the  idol  is  seen  in 
Fig.  lo,  p.  174  ;  Fig.  26,  p.  364.  The  life-history  of  the  bee, 
about  which  the  Greek  naturalists  held  erroneous  views 
(taking  the  queen-bee  as  male,  and  king  of  the  hive),  was 
correctly  understood  in  the  primitive  Ephesian  cultus ; 
and  it  is  highly  probable  that  the  employment  for  human 
use  of  the  bee  and  of  various  domesticated  animals  was 
either  originated  or  carried  to  remarkable  perfection  in 
ancient  Asia  Minor  ;  while  it  is  certain  that  the  whole 
doctrine  and  rules  of  tending  those  animals  had  a  religious 
character  and  were  in  close  relation  to  the  worship  of  the 
Divine  power  in  its  various  and  varying  local  embodi- 
ments.* 

The  reverse  of  the  coins  tells  the  same  tale  as  the  obverse. 
The  Anatolian  coin  shows  the  palm-tree  under  which  the 
goddess  was  born  among-  the  southern  mountains  at  Ortygia, 
and  her  sacred  animal,  the  stag,  cut  in  half  in  truly  barbaric 
style.  The  Hellenic  coin  shows  the  bow  and  quiver  of  the 
huntress-maiden,  and  acknowledges  the  Anatolian  goddess 
by  the  small  figure  of  a  bee :  even  in  its  most  completely 
Hellenised  form  Ephesus  must  still  do  homage  to  the  native 
goddess. 

On  the  other  hand  Greek  religion  was  strongly  anthropo- 
morphic, and  the  Hellenic  spirit,  as  it  developed  and  at- 
tained fuller  consciousness  of  its  own  nature,  rejected  more 


Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change  223 

and  more  decisively  the  animal  forms  and  animal  analogies 
in  which  the  Anatolian  religion  delighted.^ 

Where  Greece  adopted  an  Anatolian  cult,  it  tried  to  free 
itself  from  animal  associations,  and  to  transform  the  Divine 
impersonation  after  the  purely  human  beautiful  Hellenic 
idea.  Thus  to  substitute  the  head  of  the  huntress  Virgin 
Artemis  for  the  bee  on  the  coins  was  to  transform  an 
Anatolian  conception  into  a  Greek  figure,  and  to  blazon 
the  triumph  of  the  Greek  spirit  over  the  Oriental. 

There  followed  once  more  a  change  in  the  situation  of 
Ephesus,  accompanying  the  change  in  spirit  that  was  being 
wrought  in  the  aims  and  outlook  of  the  city.  Ephesus  was 
moved  away  from  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Temple  to  a 
situation  not  far  removed  from  that  of  the  old  Greek  city. 
The  change,  naturally,  was  strenuously  resisted  by  the 
priests  and  the  large  section  of  the  people  that  was  under 
their  domination.  But  the  will  of  King  Lysimachus,  the 
master  of  the  north-west  regions  of  Asia  Minor,  who  carried 
on  the  Hellenising  tradition  of  Alexander,  was  too  strong ; 
and  hecleverly  overcame  the  unwillingness  of  the  Anatolian 
party  in  the  town.  The  Ephesus  of  560-287  B.C.  was  in  a 
low-lying  situation,  surrounded  on  three  sides  by  higher 
ground,  and  in  time  of  rain  a  great  amount  of  water  poured 
down  through  the  town.  Lysimachus  took  advantage  of 
a  heavy  rain,  and  stopped  the  channels  which  carried  off 
the  water  into  the  gulf,  or  the  river :  the  town  was  flooded, 
and  the  people  weie  glad  to  leave  it. 

The  new  situation  was  admirably  strong  and  convenient ; 
and  the  Hellenic  Ephesus  of  this  new  foundation  lasted 
for  more  than  a  thousand  years.  Its  shape  was  like  a  bent 
bow,  the  two  ends  being  Pion  on  the  east  and  the  Hill  of 
Astyages  on  the  west ;  while  the  sea  washed  up  into  the 


2  24       XVII.  Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change 

space  between,  forming  an  inner  harbour,  whose  quays 
bordered  by  stately  colonnades  and  public  buildings  can 
still  be  traced  amid  the  ruins.  The  outer  harbour  was  part 
of  the  land-locked  gulf. 

A  great  street  ran  from  the  inner  harbour  right  up  to  the 
base  of  Pion.  The  visitor  to  Ephesus,  after  landing  at  the 
harbour,  would  traverse  this  long  straight  street,  edged  by 
porticoes,  with  a  series  of  magnificent  buildings  on  either 
hand,  until  he  reached  the  left  front  of  the  Great  Theatre 
and  the  beginning  of  the  steep  ascent  of  Pion.  The  street, 
as  it  has  been  disclosed  by  the  Austrian  excavations,  is 
the  result  of  a  late  reconstruction  and  bears  the  name  of 
the  Emperor  Arcadius,  A.D.  395-408 ;  but  the  reconstruc- 
tion was  only  partial,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the 
general  plan  of  the  city  in  this  quarter  dates  from  the 
foundation  about  287  B.C.,  and  that  this  great  street  is  the 
one  which  is  mentioned  in  the  Bezan  text  of  Acts  xix.  28. 
A  riot  was  roused  by  a  speech  of  Demetrius,  delivered 
probably  in  a  building  belonging  to  a  guild  of  some  of 
the  associated  trades.'^  After  the  passions  of  the  mob  and 
their  apprehension  of  financial  disaster  were  inflamed,  they 
rushed  forth  "into  the  street,"  and  ran  along  it  shouting 
and  invoking  the  goddess,  until  at  last  they  found  them- 
selves in  front  of  the  Great  Theatre.  That  vast  empty 
building  offered  a  convenient  place  for  a  hasty  assembly. 
Even  this  excited  mob  still  retained  some  idea  of  method 
in  conducting  business.  It  was  quite  in  the  old  Greek 
style  that  they  should  at  once  constitute  themselves  into  a 
meeting  of  the  Ephesian  People,  and  proceed  to  discuss 
business  and  pass  resolutions.  Many  a  meeting  convened 
in  an  equally  irregular  way,  simply  through  a  strong  com- 
mon feeling  without  any  formal  notice   had  been  held  in 


Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change  225 

the  great  Greek  cities,  and  passed  important  resolutions. 
But  this  meeting  was  not  conducted  by  persons  used  to 
business  and  possessing  authority  with  the  crowd.  It  was 
a  mere  pandemonium,  in  which  for  more  than  an  hour^ 
the  mob  howled  like  Dervishes,  shouting  their  prayers  and 
invocations.  Then  the  Secretary  addressed  the  assembly, 
and  pointed  out  that  such  an  irregular  meeting  was  not 
permitted  by  the  Imperial  government,  which  would  regard 
this  as  a  mere  riot  and  punish  it  with  the  severity  which  it 
always  showed  to  illegal  assumption  of  power.  The  whole 
scene  stands  out  clear  before  us  in  Plate  I.,  as  we  stand  at 
the  top  of  the  Theatre  and  look  across  the  great  open  space 
and  the  stage,  down  the  long  street  to  the  harbour  and  the 
hill  of  St  Paul  (Astyagesj. 

The  death  of  Lysimachus  in  281  B.C.  interrupted  and 
impeded  for  a  moment  the  development  of  the  new  city, 
which  he  had  planned  on  a  great  scale.  But  the  position 
was  favourable ;  and  it  soon  became  one  of  the  greatest 
cities  of  Asia.  Miletus  had  once  been  the  great  sea-port  of 
the  west  coast  of  Asia  Minor ;  and  the  main  route  for  the 
trade  between  the  interior  and  the  countries  of  the  West 
came  down  the  Maeander  Valley  to  Miletus,  at  the  southern 
entrance  to  a  great  gulf  extending  fully  twenty  miles  into 
the  land.  But  Miletus  had  suffered  greatly  when  the  Ionian 
revolt  was  crushed  by  the  Persians  about  500  B.C. ;  and 
Ephesus  then  gained  an  advantage  through  Persian  favour. 
Moreover,  Ephesus  was  really  a  nearer  harbour  than  Miletus 
even  for  trade  coming  down  the  Maeander  Valley.  Finally, 
the  river  Maeander  was  rapidly  silting  up  its  gulf,  and  the 
harbour  of  Miletus  was  probably  requiring  attention  to  keep 
the  entrance  open  ;  both  the  gulf  of  Miletus,  then  so  large, 
and  the  harbour  have  in  modern  times  entirely  disappeared, 


226        XVII.  Epkesus :  the  City  of  Change 


owing  to  the  action  of  the  Maeander.  Thus  Ephesus  was 
heir  to  much  of  the  trade  and  prosperity  which  had  belonged 
to  Miletus  ;  though  it  was  destined  in  its  turn,  from  a  similar 
cause,  to  see  its  harbour  ruined,  and  its  trade  and  importance 
inherited  by  its  rival  Smyrna. 

Lysimachus  had  called  the  new  city  Arsinoe  after  his 
wife,  thus  breaking  definitely  with  the  old  tradition  as  to 
name  and  the  old  Ephesian  religious  connection ;  and  he 
indicated  the  break  by  makin,^  the  bust  of  Arsinoe  the 
principal  type  on  the  city  coins.     The  tradition,  however, 


FiQ.  14. — A,  B.  Coin  of  Ephesus  under  the  name  Arsinoe. 

was  too  strong ;  and  another  change  of  name  soon  oc- 
curred, probably  at  his  death  in  281  B.C.  The  coins  of  the 
city  began  once  more  to  bear  the  old  name  of  Ephesus. 
But  the  Greek  huntress  virgin  still  had  the  place  of  honour 
on  the  silver  coins,  while  the  bee  was  the  principal  type  on 
the  copper  coins.  The  spirit  prevalent  in  the  city  expresses 
itself  always  on  the  coins. 

Another  change  took  place  about  196.  Ephesus  was 
captured  by  Antiochus  the  Great ;  and  the  Asiatic  spirit 
again  became  dominant  through  the  influence  of  the  Syrian 


Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change  227 

monarch.  The  bee  regained  its  place  as  the  characteristic 
type  on  the  silver  coinage.  A  period  of  greater  freedom 
under  the  Pergamenian  influence,  189-133,  was  marked  by 
an  increase  in  prosperity,  and  by  a  great  variety  in  the 
classes  ar.d  types  of  Ephesian  coinage. 

Ephesus  formed  part  of  the  Roman  Province  of  Asia, 
which  was  organised  in  133  B.C.  The  Roman  possession 
of  the  city  was  temporarily  interrupted  by  the  invasion  of 
King  Mithridates  in  88  B.C.  It  was  from  Ephesus  that 
he  issued  orders  for  the  great  massacre,  in  which  80,000 
Romans  (according  to  Appian,  150,000  according  to  Plu- 
tarch) were  put  to  death  in  the  Province  of  Asia.  The 
Ephesians  did  not  spare  even  the  Roman  suppliants  at 
the  altar  of  the  Goddess,  disregarding  the  right  of  asylum 
which  had  hitherto  been  universally  respected,  even  by  in- 
vaders. But  Sulla  soon  reconquered  Asia ;  and  Ephesus 
remained  undisturbed  in  Roman  possession  for  many  cen- 
turies, though  sacked  by  the  Goths  in  A.u.  263. 

In  the  Roman  Province  of  Asia,  Pergamum,  the  old 
capital  of  the  Kings,  continued  to  be  the  titular  capital ; 
but  Ephesus,  as  the  chief  harbour  of  Asia  looking  towards 
the  west,  was  far  more  important  than  an  ordinary  city  of 
the  Province.  It  was  the  gate  of  the  Province,  both  on  the 
sea-way  to  Rome,  and  also  on  the  great  central  highway 
leading  from  Syria  by  Corinth  and  Brundisium  to  Rome. 
The  Roman  governors  naturally  fell  into  the  habit  of  enter- 
ing the  Province  by  way  of  Ephesus,  for  there  was,  one 
might  almost  say,  no  other  way  at  first  ;  and  this  custom 
soon  became  a  binding  rule,  with  uninterrupted  precedents 
to  guarantee  it.  After  the  harbour  of  Ephesus  had  grown 
more  difficult  of  access  in  the  second  century,  and  other 
harbours  (probably  Smyrna  in  particular)  began  to  contest 


228       XVII.  Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change 

its  right  to  be  the  official  port  of  entrance,  the  Emperor 
Caracalla  confirmed  the  custom  of  "First  Landing"  at 
Ephesus  by  an  Imperial  rescript. 

The  drawing  in  Fig.  15  expresses  the  Ephesian  pride 
in  this  right.  It  shows  a  Roman  war-vessel,  propelled  by 
oars,  not  sails,  lightly  built,  active  and  independent  of  winds. 
The  legend  "  First  Landing "  (^A  Kara-nXov^i)  marks  it  as 
the  ship  that  conveys  the  Proconsul  to  his  landing-place  in 
Ephesus.  The  coin  was  struck  under  Philip,  A.D.  244-8 ; 
but  the  right  was  of  great  antiquity. 


Fio.  15. — Ephesus  the  first  landing-place. 

The  type  of  a  ship  occurs  in  another  form  with  a  different 
meaning  on  Ephesian  coins.  A  ship  under  sail,  which  is 
shown  in  Fig.  16,  is  a  merchant  vessel ;  and  indicates  the 
maritime  trade  that  frequented  the  harbour  of  Ephesus." 
Even  if  no  other  evidence  were  known,  this  type  would 
furnish  sufficient  proof  that  Ephesus  possessed  a  harbour. 
The  same  type  occurs  on  coins  of  Smyrna,  but  not  of  any 
other  of  the  Seven  Cities ;  because  none  of  the  others  had 
harbours. 

Not  only  was  Ephesus  the  greatest  trading  city  of  the 


Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change 


229 


Province  Asia,  and  also  of  all  Asia  north  of  Taurus  (as 
Strabo  says)  ;  it  derived  further  a  certain  religious  authority 
in  the  whole  Province  from  the  Great  Goddess  Artemis. 
The  Ephesian  Artemis  was  recognised,  even  in  the  first 
century  after  Christ,  as  in  some  sense  a  deity  of  the  whole 
Province  Asia.  This  belief  was  probably  a  creation  of  the 
Roman  period  and  the  Roman  unity;  and  it  deserves  fuller 
notice  as  an  instructive  instance  of  the  effect  produced  by  a 
Roman  idea  working  itself  out  in  Greek  forms. 

The  Roman  administrative  idea  "  Province  "  was  expressed 


Fio.  16. — The  sea-borne  commerce  of  Ephesus. 

by  the  Greek  word  "  Nation  "  :  in  Strabo  '*  the  Nation  Asia  ** 
{ji  'Acria  TO  Wvosi)  corresponds  to  the  Latin  Asia  Provincia. 
This  Greek  rendering  shows  a  truly  creative  instinct :  in 
place  of  a  mere  external  unity  produced  by  conquest  and 
compulsion  it  substitutes  an  internal  and  organic  unity 
springing  from  national  feeling.  But  the  "  Nation  "  must 
necessarily  have  a  national  religion  :  without  the  common 
bond  of  religion  no  real  national  unity  was  possible  or  con- 
ceivable to  the  Greek  and  the  Anatolian  mind.  As  the 
bond  the   Imperial  policy  set  up  the   State  religion,  the 


230       XVII.  Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change 

worship  of  the  Majesty  of  Rome  and  of  the  reigning  Emperor 
as  the  incarnate  God  in  human  form  on  earth  (J>r<zsens 
divus)  and  of  the  deceased  Emperors  who  had  returned  to 
Heaven — after  the  fashion  described  in  chapter  x.  But 
while  the  Province  loyally  accepted  this  religion,  it  was 
not  satisfied  with  it.  There  was  a  craving  after  a  native 
Asian  deity,  a  more  real  Divine  ideal :  the  Imperial  religion 
was  after  all  a  sham  religion,  and  no  amount  of  shows  and 
festivals  and  pretended  religious  form  could  give  it  religious 
reality  or  satisfy  the  deep-seated  religious  cravings  of  the 
Asian  mind.  A  deity  who  had  been  a  power  from  of  old 
in  the  land  was  wanted,  and  not  a  deity  who  was  invented 
for  the  purpose  and  the  occasion. 

In  the  circumstances  of  the  country,  and  in  conformity 
with  the  ideas  of  the  time,  such  a  deity  could  be  found  only 
in  the  tutelary  divinity  of  some  great,  leading  city ;  and 
practically  only  two  cities  were  of  national  Asian  standing, 
Pergamum  and  Ephesus.  As  we  have  seen  in  chapter  x., 
the  Pergamenian  gods,  Dionysos  the  Leader  (Kathegemon) 
and  Asklepiosthe  Saviour  (Soter),  were  being  pushed  towards 
that  position,  and  the  towns  of  Asia  were  encouraged  to 
adopt  the  worship  of  these  two  deities  alongside  of  their 
own  native  gods.^"  But  the  Ephesian  Goddess  had  a 
stronger  influence  than  the  deities  of  Pergamum,  for  every 
city  of  Asia  was  brought  into  trading  and  financial  relations 
with  Ephesus,  and  thus  learned  to  appreciate  the  power  of 
the  Goddess.  Every  city  became  familiarised  with  transac- 
tions in  which  the  gods  of  the  two  parties  were  named,  the 
Ephesian  Artemis  and  the  god  or  goddess  of  the  city  to 
which  the  other  contracting  party  belonged.  In  this  way 
Artemis  of  Ephesus  was  in  A.D.  55  the  deity  "whom  all 
Asia  and  the  civilised  world  worshipped  ".     A  commentary 


Ephesus  :  the  City  of  Change  231 

on  these  words  of  Acts  xix.  27  is  furnished  by  an  inscription 
of  Akmonia  in  Phrygia,  dated  85  A.D.,  recording  the  terms 
of  a  will,  in  which  the  testator  invokes  as  overseers  and 
witnesses  a  series  of  deities,  the  Divine  Emperors  and  the 
gods  of  his  country,  Zeus  and  Asklepios  the  Saviour  and 
Artemis  of  Ephesus  :  here  Zeus  is  the  native  Acmonian 
god,  and  Asklepios  and  Artemis  are  the  two  provincial 
gods  belonging  to  the  two  capitals,  the  official  and  the 
virtual, ^^ 

While  Ephesus  was  ranked  in  the  estimation  of  the  world 


Fio.  17.— The  Altar  of  Augustus  in  the  precinct  of  Artemis. 

by  her  goddess  Artemis,  the  Imperial  worship  was  not 
neglected.  A  shrine  and  a  great  altar  of  Augustus  was 
placed  in  the  sacred  precinct  of  the  goddess  in  the  earlier 
years  of  his  reign :  it  is  taken  as  a  type  on  coins  of  the 
Commune  (Fig.  17),  where  the  two  sacred  stags  (compare 
Fig.  26,  p.  364  ff.)  mark  the  close  connection  between  the 
Imperial  and  the  Ephesian  religion  even  at  that  early  time 
(see  p.  123). 

This  was  a  purely  municipal,  not  a  Provincial,  cult  of 
Augustus ;  and  in  the  competition  among  the  cities  of  Asia 


232        XVII.  Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change 

in  A.D.  26  for  the  honour  of  the  temple  to  Tiberius  (p.  254) 
Ephesus  was  passed  over  by  the  Senate  on  the  ground  that 
it  was  devoted  to  the  worship  of  Artemis.  But  Provincial 
temples  of  the  Imperial  religion  were  built  in  Ephesus,  one 
under  Claudius  or  Nero,  one  under  Hadrian,  and  a  third 
under  Severus ;  and  the  city  boasted  that  it  was  Temple- 
Warden  or  Neokoros  of  three  Emperors. 

Sometimes  it  styles  itself  "  four  times  Neokoros "  ;  but 
the  fourth  Temple- Wardenship  seems  to  be  of  Artemis,  not 
of  a  fourth  Emperor ;  though  the  fact  that  the  title  (which 


Fig.  18. — ^The  four  Temple- Wardenships  of  Ephesus. 

ordinarily  was  restricted  to  Imperial  temples)  was  allowed 
in  respect  of  the  temple  of  Artemis  shows  that  a  very  close 
relation  was  formed  between  the  Imperial  religion  and  the 
worship  of  Artemis  as  a  goddess  of  the  whole  Province.  A 
coin  shows  the  four  temples,  containing  the  statues  of 
Artemis  and  three  Emperors,  and  marks  the  closeiiess  of 
the  connection  between  the  cults  (Fig.  1 8). 

Two  subjects  still  claim  some  notice,  the  changes  in  the 
relation  of  sea  and  land,  and  the  changes  in  the  constitution 
of  the  city 


Ephesus  :  the  City  of  Change  233 

The  stages  of  the  former  cannot  be  precisely  dated  ;  but 
the  Gulf  of  Ephesus  was  gradually  filled  up  as  the  centuries 
passed  by,  and  navigation  was  after  a  time  rendered  difficult 
by  shallows  and  changes  of  depth,  caused  by  the  silting 
action  of  the  Cayster.  The  entrance  to  the  gulf  grew 
narrower ;  and  a  channel  was  not  easily  kept  safe  for  ships. 
Engineering  operations,  intended  to  improve  the  water-way, 
were  carried  out  by  the  Pergamenian  kings  of  the  second 
century  B.C.  and  by  the  Romans  in  the  first  century  after 
Christ ;  these  show  the  time  when  the  evil  was  becoming 
serious.  When  the  ship  in  which  St.  Paul  travelled  from 
Troas  to  Jerusalem  in  A.D.  57  sailed  past  Ephesus  without 
entering  the  harbour,  this  may  probably  be  taken  as  a  sign 
that  ships  were  beginning  to  avoid  Ephesus  unless  it  was 
necessary  to  take  or  discharge  cargo  and  passengers. 

The  state  of  the  coast  during  the  second  century  after 
Christ  is  shown  by  the  following  incident.  Apollonius  of 
Tyana,  defending  himself  before  Domitian,  spoke  of  Ephesus 
as  having  now  outgrown  the  site  on  which  it  had  been  placed 
and  extended  to  the  sea.^^  This  furnishes  a  conclusive  proof 
both  that  the  sea  no  longer  reached  up  to  Ephesus  when 
the  speech  was  composed,  and  that  it  was  not  so  distant 
from  the  city  as  the  modern  sea-shore,  for  it  is  impossible 
to  suppose  that  the  city  ever  reached  to  the  present  coast- 
line. The  words  probably  imply  that  the  sea-shore  was 
near  the  lower  {i.e.  western)  end  of  the  Hermaion,  and  that 
Ephesus  extended  into  the  valley  of  the  stream  which  flows 
from  Ortygia  to  join  the  Cayster  now,  but  at  that  time  fell 
into  the  sea.  It  remains  uncertain  whether  Philostratus 
composed  the  speech  about  210  or  found  it  in  his  authorities. 
The  difference  however  is  not  serious.  There  is  no  reason 
to  think  that  the  words  are  as  old  as  Apollonius's  supposed 


234       XVII.  Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change 

trial  about  A.D.  90.  They  represent  the  ideas  that  were 
floating  in  the  Asian  world,  A.D.  100-200;  and  even  a 
century  would  not  produce  much  difference  in  the  coast  line. 

But  even  in  the  second  and  third  centuries  after  Christ 
Ephesus  was  still  a  great  trading  city,  and  therefore  must 
have  still  had  a  harbour  open,  though  not  easy  of  access. 
It  is  certain  that  only  energetic  engineering  work  kept  an 
open  channel.  The  last  kilometre  of  the  modern  river 
course  is  straight,  in  contrast  with  the  winding  course  im- 
mediately above  ;  the  channel  is  embanked  with  a  carefully 
built  wall,  in  order  to  increase  the  scour  of  the  water ;  and 
this  part  of  the  course  is  evidently  the  result  of  a  great 
and  well-designed  scheme  for  improving  the  bed  of  the  river. 
Probably,  this  was  a  new  channel,  cut  specially  in  order  to 
avoid  the  shallows  of  the  entrance  to  the  gulf. 

The  ultimate  result,  however,  is  certain,  Ephesus  ceased 
to  be  accessible  for  shipping,  and  the  city  harbour  became 
an  inland  marsh.  It  is  probable  that  this  result  had  been 
accomplished  before  the  time  of  Justinian,  527-563  A.D. ; 
he  chose  Ayassoluk  for  the  site  of  his  great  Church  of  St. 
John  Theologos,  and  this  site  implies  that  all  thought  of 
maritime  relations  had  ceased. 

The  constitution  of  Ephesus  sought  to  maintain  by  a 
division  into  Tribes  an  equipoise  between  the  diverse  ele- 
ments which  were  united  in  the  city.  Apparently  there  were 
originally  three,  Epheseis,  including  the  native  population, 
Euonymoi,  the  Athenian  colonists,  and  Bembinaioi  (Bem- 
bineis),  possibly  the  colonists  of  other  Greek  regions  (taking 
name  from  Bembina,  a  village  of  Argolis,  beside  Nemea). 
Two  more  Tribes,  Teioi  and  Karenaioi,  were  introduced  to 
accommodate  new  bodies  of  settlers  from  the  Ionian  city 
Teos  and,  presumably,  from  Mysia  (where  the  town  Karene 


Ephesus  :  the  City  of  Change  235 

was  situated).  Ephorus,  who  wrote  in  the  middle  of  the 
fourth  century,  describes  these  as  the  five  Ephesian  Tribes.^^ 
A  sixth  Tribe  was  introduced  at  some  later  time ;  but 
the  date  of  its  formation  is  uncertain.  It  is  mentioned 
under  the  name  Sebaste,  i.e.  Augustan,  a  name  given  to  it 
in  honour  of  Augustus ;  but  the  Tribe  was  not  first  insti- 
tuted then,  for,  had  that  been  so,  its  divisions  (Chiliastyes) 
would  have  naturally  been  called  by  names  characteristic 
of  the  period  ;  but  they  bear  names  which  point  to  an 
earlier  origin.  It  would  therefore  appear  that  the  new  name 
Sebaste  was  given  to  one  of  the  existing  Tribes ;  and  the 
latest  formed  Tribe  was  chosen  for  the  purpose.  As  to  the 
origin  of  the  sixth  Tribe,  nothing  is  known  except  that  it 
was  later  than  about  340  B.C.,  and  older  than  the  time  of 
Augustus,  The  only  two  occasions  on  which  the  formation 
of  a  new  Tribe  seems  reasonably  probable  were  the  refounda- 
tion by  Lysimachus  about  287  B.C.,  and  the  remodelling  of 
the  constitution  by  Antiochus  II.,  261-246  B.C.  Lysimachus 
introduced  bodies  of  new  citizens  from  the  Ionian  cities  of 
Lebedos  and  Colophon  ;  but  he  did  not  form  a  new  Tribe 
to  hold  them.  He  classed  the  Lebedians  as  a  special 
division  (Chiliastys)  of  the  Tribe  Epheseis,  which  he  evi- 
dently instituted  under  the  name  Lebedioi  ;  and  if  a 
complete  list  of  the  Chiliastyes  were  preserved,  we  might 
find  another  called  Colophon ioi.  Apparently  Lysimachus 
was  anxious  to  avoid  a  too  marked  break  with  the  past,  and 
left  the  old  Tribes  unchanged  in  names  and  number.  It 
remains  that  the  sixth  Tribe  must  have  been  formed  by 
Antiochus  II.  Now  it  has  been  shown  in  chapter  xii.  that 
Antiochus  placed  in  Ephesus  a  body  of  Jews  as  citizens, 
and  it  is  expressly  recorded  that  he  settled  the  constitution 
on  a  lasting  basis,  which  remained  unchanged  at  least  until 


236       XVII.  Ephesus :  the  City  of  Change 

15  B.C.  It  has  also  been  shown  in  that  chapter  that  a  body 
of  Jewish  citizens  could  be  introduced  into  a  Hellenic  city 
only  by  placing  them  in  a  special  Tribe.  The  old  five 
Tribes  had  their  own  long-established  religious  rites,  which 
could  not  be  avoided  by  any  member,  and  were  impossible 
for  Jews.  A  new  Tribe  was  required  whose  bond  of  unity 
should  not  be  of  a  kind  to  exclude  the  Jews.  Antiochus 
formed  a  sixth  Tribe  and  placed  all  his  new  citizens  in  it. 
The  original  name  of  this  Tribe  is  unknown ;  but  it  was 
probably  such  as  to  give  an  appearance  of  Hellenic  character 
(as  the  Jewish  Tribe  in  Alexandria  was  called  Macedones). 
The  only  known  Chiliastyes  of  this  Tribe  were  Labandeos 
(which  seems  Carian,  and  may  mark  a  body  of  Carian 
colonists)  and  Sieus  (from  the  name  of  an  aquatic  plant  like 
parsley,  that  grew  in  the  marshes  near  Ephesus) :  the  latter 
seems  intended  to  give  a  native  appearance  to  this  latest  and 
most  foreign  of  classes  in  the  State. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  the  new  Tribe  consisted 
exclusively  of  Jews.  It  would  be  sufficient  to  make  two 
provisions :  first,  one  of  the  Chiliastyes  of  the  new  Tribe 
must  have  been  reserved  for  the  Jews  ;  secondly,  the  bond 
of  unity  in  the  whole  Tribe  must  not  be  a  pagan  ritual. 
It  must  be  observed  that,  while  it  was  hardly  possible  for 
the  king  to  tamper  with  the  religion  of  any  of  the  old 
Tribes,  the  character  of  the  new  one  was  entirely  within  his 
control. 


Note. — Prof.  Benndorf  has  kindly  sent  me  the  proofs  of 
the  article  mentioned  on  p.  211.  He  thinks  that  the  em- 
ibankment  of  the  last  part  of  the  river  channel  may  date 
from   Hadrian,  which  agrees    with   the   view  here  taken, 

p.  233  t 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  LETTER  TO  THE  CHURCH  IN  EPHESUS. 

These  things  saith  he  that  holdeth  the  seven  stars  in  his  right  hand,  h$ 
that  walketh  in  the  midst  of  the  seven  golden  lamps. 

I  know  thy  works,  and  thy  toil  and  patience,  and  that  thou  canst  not 
bear  evil  men,  and  didst  try  them  which  call  themselves  apostles,  and  they 
are  not,  and  didst  find  them  false;  and  thou  hast  patience  and  didst  bear 
for  my  name's  sake,  and  hast  not  grown  weary.  But  I  have  this  against 
thee,  that  thou  didst  leave  thy  first  love.  Remember  therefore  from  whence 
thou  art  fallen,  and  repent,  and  do  the  first  works  ;  or  else  I  come  to  thee, 
and  will  move  thy  candlestick  out  of  its  place,  except  thou  repent.  But  this 
thou  hast,  that  thou  hatest  the  works  of  the  Nicolaitans,  which  I  also  hate. 

He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  to  the  Churches. 

To  him  that  overcometh,  to  him  will  I  give  to  cat  of  the  tree  of  life,  which 
is  in  the  Paradise  of  God. 

The  message  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus  comes  from  Him 
"  that  holdeth  the  seven  stars  in  His  right  hand,  that  walketh 
in  the  midst  of  the  seven  golden  lamps ".  If  we  review 
the  openings  of  the  other  six  letters,  none  could  so  appropri- 
ately be  used  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus  as  this  description. 
The  only  exordium  which  could  for  a  moment  be  compared 
in  suitability  with  it  is  the  opening  of  the  Sardian  letter, 
**  he  that  hath  the  Seven  Spirits  of  God  and  the  Seven 
Stars".  The  second  part  in  that  case  is  almost  identical 
with  part  of  the  Ephesian  exordium,  but  the  first  part  is 
different. 

The  similarity  between  the  Ephesian  and  Sardian  letters 
is  not  confined  to  the  opening  address,  but  can  be  traced 


238     XVIII.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus 

throughout.  If  Ephesus  was  the  practical  centre  and  lead- 
ing city  of  Asia  at  that  time,  though  not  the  official  capital 
of  the  Province,  Sardis  was  the  ancient  capital  of  Lydia, 
and  the  historical  centre  of  the  Asian  cities ;  the  tone  and 
spirit  of  the  history  of  the  two  Churches  had  been  to  a 
certain  degree  analogous ;  and  therefore  a  resemblance  in 
the  letters  was  natural.  The  Author  of  the  letters  assumes 
much  the  same  character  in  addressing  these  two  cities, 
emphasi'^^ing  in  both  cases  his  relation  with  all  the  Seven 
Churches.  The  capital  of  a  country  stands  for  the  whole, 
and  he  who  addresses  the  practical  capital  may  well  lay 
stress  upon  his  relation  to  all  the  other  cities  of  the  coun- 
try. But  the  similarities  and  differences  between  these  two 
letters  can  be  discussed  more  satisfactorily  when  we  take 
up  the  Sardian  letter  and  have  both  before  us. 

Ephesus,  as  in  practical  importance  the  leading  city  of 
the  Province  Asia,  might  be  said  in  a  sense  to  be  the  centre, 
to  be  in  the  midst  of  the  Seven  Churches  ;  and  the  Divine 
figure  that  addresses  her  appropriately  holds  in  His  hand 
the  Seven  Stars,  which  "are  the  Seven  Churches".  The 
leading  city  can  stand  for  the  whole  Province,  as  the 
Province  can  stand  for  the  whole  Church ;  and  that  was 
so  customary  and  usual  as  to  need  no  explanation  or 
justification.  To  the  Christians,  Ephesus  and  Asia  were 
almost  convertible  terms ;  Ephesus  stood  for  Asia,  Asia 
was  Ephesus.  Hence  in  the  list  of  equivalent  names  com- 
piled by  some  later  scribe,^  the  explanation  is  formally 
given,  No.  40,  ^Aaia  rj  ''E(f)eao^,  "Asia"  means  the  city 
Ephesus. 

As  to  the  holding  of  the  seven  stars,  Mr.  Anderson 
Scott,  in  his  admirable  little  edition,  published  in  the 
Century  Bible,  remarks  that  "  in  the  image  before  the  eye 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus      239 

of  the  Seer  the  seven  stars  probably  appear  as  a  chain  of 
glittering  jewels  hanging  from  the  hand  of  Christ ".  This 
image  suits  excellently  the  description  which  we  have 
given  already  of  the  Seven  Churches  as  situated  on  the 
circling  road  that  goes  forth  from  Ephesus,  traverses  them 
all  in  succession  and  returns  to  its  point  of  origin  in  the 
representative  city  of  the  Province.  The  analogy  from 
pagan  art  quoted  on  p.  259  shows  how  readily  this  figure 
would  be  understood  by  the  Asian  readers. 

After  the  initial  address,  the  letter  begins,  according  to 
the  usual  plan,  with  the  statement  that  the  Author  has  full 
knowledge  of  the  character  and  fortunes  of  the  Church. 
He  knows  what  the  Ephesians  have  done. 

The  past  history  of  the  Ephesian  Church  had  been  one 
of  labour  and  achievement,  enduring  and  energetic.  Above 
all  it  had  been  distinguished  by  its  insight  into  the  true 
character  of  those  who  came  to  it  with  the  appearance  of 
Apostles.  It  lay  on  the  great  highway  of  the  world,  visited 
by  many  Christian  travellers,  some  coming  to  it  for  its  own 
sake,  others  merely  on  their  way  to  a  more  distant  destina- 
tion. Especially,  those  who  were  travelling  to  and  from 
Rome  for  the  most  part  passed  through  Ephesus:  hence 
it  was  already,  or  shortly  afterwards  became,  known  as  the 
highway  of  the  martyrs,  "the  passage-way  of  those  who 
are  slain  unto  God,"  as  Ignatius  called  it  a  few  years  later, 
i.e.,  the  place  through  which  must  pass  those  who  were  on 
their  way  to  Rome  to  amuse  the  urban  population  by  their 
death  in  the  amphitheatre.  Occasionally,  it  is  true,  they 
were  conducted  to  Rome  by  a  different  road.  Ignatius, 
for  example,  did  not  pass  through  Ephesus,  but  was  taken 
along  the  overland  route,  for  some  reason  unknown  to  us. 
The  reason  did  not  lie  in  the  season  of  the  year,  for  he  was 


240     XVIII.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus 

at  Smyrna  on  7th  August,  and  probably  reached  Rome  on 
17th  October,  an  open  time  for  navigation.  But  Ignatius 
knew,  though  he  himself  was  led  by  another  route,  that  the 
ordinary  path  of  death  for  Eastern  martyrs  was  by  land  to 
Ephesus  and  thence  by  sea  to  Rome.^ 

Among  the  travellers  there  came  to  Ephesus,  or  passed 
through  it,  many  who  claimed  to  be  teachers ;  but  the 
Ephesian  Church  tested  them  all ;  and,  when  they  were 
false,  unerringly  detected  them  and  unhesitatingly  rejected 
them. 

The  recital  of  the  past  history  and  the  services  of  the 
Church  occupies  a  much  greater  proportion  of  the  Ephesian 
letter  than  of  any  other  of  the  Seven.  The  writer  dwells 
upon  this  topic  with  emphatic  appreciation.  After  de- 
scribing the  special  kind  of  work  in  which  the  Ephesians 
had  been  most  active  and  useful,  he  returns  again  to  pmise 
their  career  of  patience  and  steadfastness,  and  describes 
their  motive — ''for  my  nmne's  sake' — which  enhances  their 
merit.  The  best  counsel,  the  full  and  sufficient  standard  of 
excellence  for  the  Ephesians,  is  to  do  as  they  did  of  old. 
Others  may  have  to  improve ;  but  Ephesians  are  urged  not 
to  fall  short  of  their  ancient  standard  of  action. 

The  best  commentary  on  this  is  found  in  the  letter  of 
Ignatius  to  the  Ephesians,  with  its  profound  and  frank 
admiration,  which  might  seem  almost  to  be  exaggerated 
were  it  not  justified  by  the  language  of  St.  John.  The 
Syrian  bishop  wrote  as  one  who  felt  that  he  was  honoured 
in  associating  with  the  envoys  from  the  Ephesian  Church 
and  in  being  "  permitted  by  letter  to  bear  it  company,  and 
to  rejoice  with  it".  Ignatius  shows  clearly  in  his  letter  the 
reasons  for  his  admiration.  The  characteristics  which  he 
praises  in  the  Ephesian  Church  are  the  same  as  those  which 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus      241 

St.  John  mentions.  And  yet  they  are  so  expressed  as  to 
exclude  the  idea  that  he  remembered  the  words  of  this 
letter  and  either  consciously  or  unconsciously  used  them : 
"  I  ought  to  be  trained  for  the  contest  by  you  in  faith,  in 
admonition,  in  endurance,  in  long  suffering,"  §  3 :  "  for  ye 
all  live  according  to  truth  and  no  heresy  hath  a  home 
among  you  ;  nay,  ye  do  not  so  much  as  listen  to  any  one 
if  he  speak  of  ought  else  save  concerning  Jesus  Christ  in 
truth,"  §  6 :  "as  indeed  ye  are  not  deceived,"  §  8 :  "I 
have  learned  that  certain  persons  passed  through  you  from 
Syria,^  bringing  evil  doctrine ;  whom  ye  suffered  not  to 
sow  seed  in  you,  for  ye  stopped  your  ears,"  §  9 :  "  you 
were  ever  of  one  mind  with  the  Apostles  in  the  power  of 
Jesus  Christ,"  §  11. 

The  ideas  are  the  same;  but  they  are  scattered  about 
through  Ignatius's  letter,  and  not  concentrated  in  one  place. 
Moreover  the  words  are  almost  entirely  different.  The 
only  important  words  common  to  those  passages  of  Igna- 
tius and  the  letter  which  we  are  studying  are  "  endurance," 
vTrofiovi],  which  almost  forced  itself  on  any  writer,  and 
"  Apostles  " ;  but  Ignatius  speaks  of  the  true  Apostles,  St. 
John  of  the  false.  The  idea  of  testing,  which  is  prominent 
in  St.  John,  is  never  explicitly  mentioned  by  Ignatius,  and 
yet  it  is  implied  and  presupposed  in  the  passages  quoted 
from  §§  6,  8,  9.  But  he  was  interested  only  in  the  result, 
the  successful  championing  of  truth,  whereas  St.  John  was 
necessarily  interested  quite  as  much  in  the  way  by  which 
the  Ephesians  attained  the  result. 

The  probability,  then,  is  that  Ignatius  was  not  familiar 
with  the  Ephesian  letter  of  St.  John.  He  could  hardly  have 
kept  so  remote  from  the  expression  of  this  letter,  if  it  had 
been  clear  and  fresh  in  his  memory.     Hence  his  testimony 


242     XVIII.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Ephesui 

may  be  taken  as  entirely  independent  of  the  Revelation, 
and  as  showing  that  the  reputation  of  Ephesus  in  the 
Christian  world  about  the  beginning  of  the  second  century 
had  not  grown  weaker  or  less  brilliant  in  the  short  interval 
since  St.  John  wrote. 

But,  while  nothing  is  required  of  the  Ephesians  except 
that  they  should  continue  to  show  their  old  character,  yet 
a  return  to  their  earlier  spirit  was  urgently  necessary.  The 
fault  of  the  Ephesian  Church  was  that  it  no  longer  showed 
the  same  spirit :  the  intense  enthusiasm  which  characterised 
the  young  Church  had  grown  cooler  with  advancing  age. 
That  was  the  serious  danger  that  lay  before  them ;  and  it 
is  the  common  experience  m  every  reform  movement,  in 
every  religion  that  spreads  itself  by  proselytising.  The 
history  of  Mohammedanism  shows  it  on  a  large  scale.  No 
religion  has  ever  exercised  a  more  rapid  and  almost  mag- 
ical influence  over  barbarous  races  than  Islam  has  often 
done,  elevating  them  at  once  to  a  distinctly  higher  level  of 
spiritual  and  intellectual  life  than  they  had  been  capable  of 
even  understanding  before.  But  in  the  case  of  almost  every 
Mohammedanised  race,  after  the  first  burst  of  enthusiastic 
religion,  under  the  immediate  stimulus  of  the  great  moral 
ideas  that  Mohammed  taught,  has  been  exhausted,  its 
subsequent  history  presents  a  spectacle  of  stagnation  and 
retrogression.* 

The  problem  in  this  and  in  every  other  such  case  is  how 
to  find  any  means  of  exercising  a  continuous  stimulus, 
which  shall  maintain  the  first  enthusiasm.  Something  is 
needed,  and  the  writer  of  this  letter  perhaps  was  thinking 
of  some  such  stimulus  in  the  words  that  follow,  containing 
a  threat  as  to  what  shall  be  done  to  Ephesus  if  it  con- 
tinues to  degenerate,  and  fails  to  reinvigorate  its  former 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Epkesus      243 

earnest  enthusiasm.  But  a  less  serious  penalty  is  threat- 
ened in  this  case  than  in  some  of  the  other  letters — not 
destruction,  nor  rejection,  not  even  the  extirpation  of  the 
weak  or  erring  portion  of  the  Church,  but  only  "  I  come 
in  displeasure  at  thee,  and  will  move  thy  lamp,  the  Church, 
out  of  its  place". 

Some  commentators  regard  the  threat  as  equivalent  to  a 
decree  of  destruction,  and  point  to  the  fact  that  the  site  is 
a  desert  and  the  Church  extinct  as  a  proof  that  the  threat 
has  been  fulfilled.  But  it  seems  impossible  to  accept  this 
view.  It  is  wrong  method  to  disregard  the  plain  meaning, 
which  is  not  destruction  but  change  ;  and  equally  so  to 
appeal  to  present  facts  as  proving  that  destruction  must 
have  been  meant  by  this  figurative  expression. 

Equally  unsatisfactory  is  another  interpretation,  that 
Ephesus  shall  be  degraded  from  its  place  of  honour,  which 
implies  an  unconscious  assumption  that  Ephesus  already 
occupied  its  later  position  of  metropolitan  authority  in  the 
Asian  Church.  As  yet  Ephesus  had  no  principate  in  the 
Church,  except  what  it  derived  from  its  own  character  and 
conduct :  while  its  character  continued,  its  influence  must 
continue ;  if  its  character  degenerated,  its  influence  must 
disappear.  Ephesus  has  always  remained  the  titular  head 
of  the  Asian  Church  ;  and  the  Bishop  of  Ephesus  still  bears 
that  dignity,  though  he  no  longer  resides  at  Ephesus,  but 
at  Magnesia  ad  Sipylum.  For  many  centuries,  however, 
Smyrna  has  been  in  practice  a  much  more  important  See 
than  Ephesus. 

The  natural  meaning  must  be  taken.  The  threat  is  so 
expressed  that  it  must  be  understood  of  a  change  in  local 
position  :  "  /  will  move  thy  Church  out  of  its  place  "  (^Kivija-a 

itC  TOV  TOTTOV  aVT7](i). 


244     XVIII.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus 

Surely  in  this  milder  denunciation  we  may  see  a  prool 
that  the  evil  in  Ephesus  was  curable.  The  loss  of  enthu- 
siasm which  affected  that  Church  was  different  in  kind  from 
the  lukewarmness  that  affected  Laodicea,  and  should  be 
treated  in  a  different  way.  The  half-heartedness  of  the 
Laodiceans  was  deadly,  and  those  who  were  so  affected 
were  hopeless,  and  should  be  irrevocably  and  inexorably 
rejected.  But  the  cooling  of  the  first  Ephesian  enthusiasm 
was  a  failing  that  lies  in  human  nature.  The  failing  can 
be  corrected,  the  enthusiasm  may  be  revived  ;  and,  if  the 
Ephesians  cannot  revive  it  among  themselves  by  their  own 
strength,  their  Church  shall  be  moved  out  of  its  place. 

The  interpretation  of  Grotius  comes  near  the  truth :  "  I 
will  cause  thy  population  to  flee  away  to  another  place". 
We  do  not  know  whether  the  form  in  which  he  expresses 
his  interpretation  is  due  to  the  belief  current  in  the  country 
that  the  Christian  people  of  Ephesus  fled  to  the  mountains 
and  settled  in  a  village  four  hours  distant,  called  Kirkindje, 
which  their  descendants  still  consider  to  be  the  representa- 
tive of  the  ancient  Ephesus,  But  if  Grotius  had  that  fact 
in  view,  his  interpretation  does  not  quite  hit  the  mark. 
The  writer  of  the  Seven  Letters  was  not  thinking  of  an 
arbitrary  fact  of  that  kind,  which  might  befall  any  city,  and 
was  in  no  way  characteristic  of  the  real  deep-seated  nature 
of  one  city  more  than  of  another.  He  had  his  eye  fixed 
on  the  broad  permanent  character  of  Ephesian  scenery  and 
surroundings,  and  his  thought  moved  in  accord  with  the 
nature  of  the  locality,  and  expressed  itself  in  a  form  that 
applied  to  Ephesus  and  to  no  other  of  the  Seven  Churches. 

There  is  one  characteristic  that  belongs  to  Ephesus,  dis- 
tinctive and  unique  among  the  cities  of  the  Seven  Churches  • 
it  is  change.      In  most  ancient  sites  one  is  struck  by  the 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus      245 

immutability  of  nature  and  the  mutability  of  all  human 
additions  to  nature.  In  Ephesus  it  is  the  shifting  character 
of  the  natural  conditions  on  wh  ch  the  city  depends  for 
prosperity  that  strikes  every  careful  observer  and  every 
student  either  of  history  or  of  nature.  The  scenery  and  the 
site  have  varied  from  century  to  century.  Where  there  was 
water  there  is  now  land :  what  was  a  populated  city  in  one 
period  ceased  to  be  so  in  another,  and  has  again  become 
the  centre  of  life  for  the  valley:  where  at  one  time  there 
was  only  bare  hillside  or  the  gardens  of  a  city  some  miles 
distant,  at  another  time  there  was  a  vast  city  crowded  with 
inhabitants,  and  this  has  again  relapsed  into  its  earlier  con- 
dition :  the  harbour  in  which  St,  John  and  St.  Paul  landed 
has  become  a  mere  marsh,  and  the  theatre  where  the  excited 
crowd  met  and  shouted  to  Diana,  desolate  and  ruinous  as  it 
is,  has  been  more  permanent  than  the  harbour.  The  relation 
of  sea  and  land  has  changed  in  quite  unusual  fashion :  the 
broad  level  valley  was  once  a  great  inlet  of  the  sea,  at  the 
head  of  which  was  the  oldest  Ephesus,  beside  the  Temple 
of  the  Goddess,  near  where  the  modern  village  stands.  But 
the  sea  receded  and  the  land  emerged  from  it.  The  city 
followed  the  sea,  and  changed  from  place  to  place  to  main- 
tain its  importance  as  the  only  harbour  of  the  valley. 

All  those  facts  were  familiar  to  the  Ephesians ;  they  are 
recorded  for  us  by  Strabo,  Pliny,  and  Herodotus,  but 
Ephesian  belief  and  record  are  the  foundation  for  the  state- 
ments of  those  writers.  A  threat  of  removing  the  Church 
from  its  place  would  be  inevitably  understood  by  the 
Ephesians  as  a  denunciation  of  another  change  in  the  site 
of  the  city,  and  must  have  been  so  intended  by  the  writer. 
Ephesus  and  its  Church  should  be  taken  up,  and  moved 
away  to  a  new  spot,  where  it  might  begin  afresh  on  a  new 


246     XVIII.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus 

career  with  a  better  spirit.  But  it  would  be  still  Ephesus, 
as  it  had  always  hitherto  been  amid  all  changes. 

Such  was  the  meaning  that  the  Ephesians  must  have 
taken  from  the  letter;  but  no  other  of  the  Seven  Cities 
would  have  found  those  words  so  clear  and  significant. 
Others  would  have  wondered  what  they  might  mean,  as 
the  commentators  are  still  wondering  and  debating.  To 
the  Ephesians  the  words  would  seem  natural  and  plain. 

But  after  this  threat  the  letter  returns  to  the  dominant 
note.  The  Ephesian  Church  was  still,  as  it  had  been  from 
the  beginning,  guarding  the  way,  testing  all  new  teachers, 
and  rejecting  with  sure  judgment  the  unworthy.  In  the 
question  which  beyond  all  others  seemed  to  the  writer  the 
critical  problem  of  the  day  the  Ephesians  agreed  with  him, 
and  hated  the  works  of  the  Nicolaitans.  In  two  other 
letters  that  party  in  the  early  Church  is  more  fully  de- 
scribed. In  the  Ephesian  letter  the  Nicolaitans  are  only 
named. 

The  promise  contained  in  the  perorations  of  the  Seven 
Letters  is  different  in  every  case,  and  is  evidently  adapted 
in  each  instance  to  suit  the  general  tone  of  the  letter  and 
the  character  and  needs  of  the  city.  To  the  Ephesian  who 
overcometh,  the  promise  is  that  he  shall  eat  of  the  tree  of 
life,  which  is  in  the  Garden  of  God.  Life  is  promised  both 
to  Smyrna  and  to  Ephesus ;  yet  how  differently  is  it  ex- 
pressed in  the  two  cases.  Smyrna  must  suffer,  and  would 
be  faithful  unto  death,  but  it  shall  not  be  hurt  of  the  second 
death.  Ephesus  had  been  falling  from  its  original  high 
level  of  enthusiasm ;  it  needed  to  be  quickened  and  rein- 
vigorated,  and  none  of  the  promises  made  to  the  other 
Churches  would  suit  its  need ;  but  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of 
life  is  the  infallible  cure,  the  tree  whose  very  leaves  were 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus      247 

for  the  healing  of  the  nations,  the  tree  in  which  every  true 
Christian  acquires  a  right  of  participation  (xxii.  2,  14).  The 
expression  is,  of  course,  symbolical ;  and  its  real  meaning 
can  hardly  be  specified.  It  would  be  vain  to  ask  what  St. 
John  had  precisely  in  his  mind  ;  but  it  might  be  a  more 
hopeful  task  to  inquire  what  meaning  the  Asian  readers 
would  take  from  the  phrase.  It  is  a  Jewish  expression  ; 
but  the  Asian  readers  would  take  it  in  the  way  in  which 
many  Jewish  ideas  seem  to  have  become  efficacious  in  the 
Province,  viz.^  in  a  sort  of  syncretism  of  Jewish  and  native 
Asian  thought 

Every  image  or  idea  in  this  letter  finds  a  parallel  or  an 
illustration  in  Jewish  thought  and  literature.  Yet  it  cannot 
be  said  with  truth  that  the  letter  is  exclusively  Jewish  in 
tone.  There  is  nothing  in  it  which  would  seem  strange  or 
foreign  to  the  Hellenic  or  Hellenised  people  for  whom  the 
book  was  in  the  first  instance  written.  Even  the  tree  of 
life  carried  no  un-Hellenic  connotation  to  Ephesian  readers. 
The  tree  was  as  significant  a  symbol  of  life-giving  Divine 
power  to  the  Asian  Greeks  as  to  the  Jews,  though  in  a 
different  way.  Trees  had  been  worshipped  as  the  home  of 
the  Divine  nature  and  power  from  time  immemorial,  and 
were  still  so  worshipped,  in  Asia  Minor  as  in  the  ancient 
world  generally.  On  some  sacred  tree  the  prosperity  and 
safety  of  a  family  or  tribe  or  city  was  often  believed  to 
depend.  When  the  sacred  olive-tree  on  the  Acropolis  of 
Athens  put  forth  a  new  shoot  after  the  city  had  been 
burned  by  the  Persians,  the  people  knew  that  the  safety 
of  the  State  was  assured.  The  belief  was  widely  enter- 
tained that  the  life  of  a  man  was  connected  with  some 
tree,  and  returned  into  that  tree  when  he  died.  The  tree 
which  grew  on  a  grave  was  often  thought  to  be  penetrated 


248     XVIII.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus 

with  the  spirit  and  life  of  the  buried  man;  and  an  old 
Athenian  law  punished  with  death  any  one  that  had  cut 
a  holm-oak  growing  in  a  sepulchral  ground,  i.e.  heroon.^ 
Sacred  trees  are  introduced  in  Fig.  4,  p.  6^^  Fig.  23,  p.  285, 
and  Fig.  14A,  p.  220. 

It  will  probably  seem  to  many  persons  an  unworthy  and 
even  irrational  procedure  to  trace  any  connection  between 
the  superstitious  veneration  of  sacred  trees  and  the  sym- 
bolism of  St.  John.  But  it  was  shown  in  chapter  xiii. 
that  although  Ignatius  abhorred  paganism,  and  though  the 
memory  of  his  pagan  days  caused  a  lasting  sense  of  shame 
in  his  mind,  yet  he  could  compare  the  life  of  a  Christian 
congregation  to  the  procession  at  a  pagan  festival,  and 
could  use  symbolism  derived  from  the  pagan  mysteries  to 
shadow  forth  the  deepest  thoughts  of  Christianity.  In  all 
those  cases  the  same  process  takes  place :  the  religious 
ideas  of  the  pagans  are  renovated  in  a  Christian  form,  en- 
nobled and  spiritualised.  The  tree  of  life  in  the  Revelation 
was  in  the  mind  of  the  Ephesians  a  Christianisation  of  the 
sacred  tree  in  the  pagan  religion  and  folk-lore :  it  was  a 
symbolic  expression  which  was  full  of  meaning  to  the  Asian 
Christians,  because  to  them  the  tree  had  always  been  the 
seat  of  Divine  life  and  the  intermediary  between  Divine  and 
human  nature.  The  problem  which  was  constantly  present 
to  the  ancient  mind  in  thinking  of  the  relation  of  man  to 
God  appears  here :  how  can  the  gulf  that  divides  human 
nature  from  the  Divine  nature  be  bridged  over  ?  how  can 
God  come  into  effective  relation  to  man  ?  In  the  holy  tree 
the  Divine  life  is  bringing  itself  closer  to  man.  He  who  can 
eat  of  the  tree  of  life  is  feeding  on  the  Divine  power  and 
nature,  is  strengthening  himself  with  the  body  and  the  blood 
of  Christ.    The  idea  was  full  of  power  to  the  Asian  readers. 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus      249 

But  to  us  the  "tree  of  life"  carries  in  itself  little  mean- 
ing. It  seems  to  us  at  first  little  more  than  a  metaphor 
in  this  passage,  and  in  Rev.  xxii.  it  appears  to  us  to  be  a 
mere  detail  in  a  rather  fanciful  and  highly  poetical  allegory. 
A  considerable  effort  is  needed  before  we  can  even  begin 
dimly  to  appreciate  the  power  which  this  idea  had  in  the 
minds  of  Ephesian  readers :  we  have  to  recreate  the 
thoughts  and  mind  of  that  time,  before  we  can  understand 
their  conception  of  the  "tree  of  life". 

Accordingly,  although  the  "  tree  of  life  "  is  different  from 
any  expression  that  occurs,  so  far  as  known,  in  Greek 
literature,  it  contains  nothing  that  would  seem  strange 
or  exotic  to  Greeks  or  Asians.  And  every  other  idea  in 
the  letter  would  seem  equally  natural,  and  would  appeal 
to  equally  familiar  beliefs  and  habits  of  life.  While  we 
need  not  doubt  that  the  writer  took  the  "  tree  of  life  "  from 
his  own  Jewish  sphere  of  thought,  yet  he  certainly  avoids 
in  all  these  letters  anything  that  is  distinctly  anti-Hellenic 
in  expression.  So  far  as  the  Seven  Letters  are  concerned, 
he  is  in  advance  of,  not  in  hostility  to,  the  best  side  of 
Hellenic  thought  and  education. 

Thus  ends  the  le'ter.  It  is  a  distinctly  laudatory  one, 
when  it  is  examined  phrase  by  phrase  :  i!  shows  admiratic.n 
and  full  apprec  ation  of  a  great  career  and  a  noble  history. 
Yet  it  does  not  leave  a  pleasant  impression  of  the  Ephtsian 
Church  ;  and  there  is  a  lack  of  co'  dial  and  sympathetic  spirit 
in  it.  The  writer  seems  not  to  have  loved  the  Ephesians  as 
he  did  the  Smyrnaeans  and  Philadelphians.  He  respected 
and  esteemed  them.  He  felt  that  they  possessed  every 
great  quality  excep'  a  loving  enthusiasm.  But  when,  in 
order  to  finish  with  a  word  of  praise,  he  see'cs  for  some 
definite  laudable  fact  in  their  conduct  at  the  present  moment, 


250     XVIII.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Ephesus 

the  one  thing  which  he  finds  to  say  is  that  they  hated  those 
whom  he  hated.  Their  disapproval  and  their  hatred  were 
correctly  apportioned :  in  sympathy  and  love  they  were 
deficient.  A  common  hatred  is  a  poor  and  ephemeral 
ground  of  unanimity. 

The  Ephesians  stand  before  us  in  the  pathway  of  the 
world,  at  the  door  by  which  the  West  visited  the  East, 
and  from  which  the  East  looked  out  upon  the  West,  as  a 
dignified  people  worthy  of  their  great  position,  who  had 
lived  through  a  noble  history  in  the  past,  and  were  on  the 
whole  not  unworthy  of  it  in  the  present,  who  maintained 
their  high  tradition — and  yet  one  thing  was  lacking,  the 
power  of  loving  and  of  making  themselves  loved. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

.     SMYRNA:  THE  CITY  OF  LIFE. 

Smyrna  was  founded  as  a  Greek  colony  more  than  a  thou- 
sand years  before  Christ ;  but  that  ancient  yEolian  Smyrna 
tf^as  soon  captured  by  Ionian  Greeks,  and  made  into  an 
Ionian  colony.  Ionian  Smyrna  was  a  great  city,  whose 
dominion  extended  to  the  east  far  beyond  the  valley,  and 
whose  armies  contended  on  even  terms  against  the  power 
of  Lydia.  Battles  fought  against  the  Lydians  on  the  banks 
of  the  Hermus  are  mentioned  by  the  Smyrnaean  poet 
Mimnermus  in  the  seventh  century.  But  Lydian  power 
with  its  centre  at  Sardis  was  increasing  during  that  period, 
and  Smyrna  gradually  gave  way  before  it,  until  finally  the 
Greek  city  was  captured  and  destroyed  about  600  B.C.  by 
King  Alyattes.  In  one  sense  Smyrna  was  now  dead  ;  the 
Greek  city  had  ceased  to  exist ;  and  it  was  only  in  the 
third  century  that  it  was  restored  to  the  history  of  Hellenic 
enterprise  in  Asia.  There  was,  however,  a  State  named 
Smyrna  during  that  long  interval,  when  the  Ionian  Smyrna 
was  merely  a  historical  memory.  It  is  mentioned  in  an 
inscription  of  368  B.C.  as  a  place  of  some  consequence ;  but 
it  was  no  longer  what  the  Greeks  called  a  city.  It  was 
essential  to  the  Greek  idea  of  a  city  that  it  should  have 
internal  freedom,  that  it  should  elect  its  own  magistrates  to 
manage  its  own  affairs,  and  that  its  citizens  should  have 
the  education  and  the  spirit  which  spring  from  habitually 

(251) 


252  XIX.  Smyrna:  the  City  of  Life 

■ 

thinking  imperially.  This  Asiatic  Smyrna  between  about 
600  and  290  was,  as  Strabo  says,  a  loose  aggregate  of 
villagers  living  in  various  settlements  scattered  over  the 
plain  and  the  surrounding  hills ;  it  possessed  no  sovereign 
power  or  self-governing  institutions ;  and  it  has  left  no 
trace  on  history.  Aristides,  however,  says  that  there  was  a 
town  in  that  period  intermediate  in  position  between  the 
old  and  the  later  city. 

Smyrna  was  treated  more  harshly  than  Ephesus  by  the 
Lydian  conquerors  :  apparently  the  reason  was  that  it  was 
more  typically  Greek  and  more  hostile  to  the  Asiatic  spint 
of  the  Lydian  realm,  whereas  the  native  Anatolian  element 
was  stronger  in  Ephesus.  The  purely  Greek  Smyrna  could 
not  be  made  to  wear  Lydian  harness,  and  was  destroyed. 
The  half- Asiatic  Ephesus  was  easily  changed  into  a  useful 
Lydian  town  without  the  complete  sacrifice  of  autonomy 
and  individuality. 

The  design  was  attributed  to  Alexander  the  Great  of 
marking  the  triumph  of  Hellenism  by  refounding  Greek 
Smyrna ;  and  later  coins  of  Smyrna  show  his  dream,  in 
which  the  Smyrnaean  goddesses,  the  two  Nemeseis  or  Fates, 
appeared  to  him  and  suggested  to  him  that  plan.  But  it 
was  left  for  King  Lysimachus,  after  Antigonus  had  made  a 
beginning,  to  carry  the  design  into  effect.  His  refoundation 
of  Smyrna  and  of  Ephesus  was  a  part  of  a  great  scheme, 
the  completion  of  which  was  prevented  by  his  death.  The 
new  Hellenic  Smyrna  was  in  a  different  place  from  the  old 
Ionian  city.  The  earlier  city  had  been  on  a  steep  lofty 
hill  overhanging  on  the  north  the  extreme  eastern  recess 
of  the  gulf:  the  new  city  was  on  the  south-east  shore  of 
the  gulf  about  two  miles  away.  The  aim  in  the  former 
was  security  against  sudden  attack,  but  there  could  never 


Smyrna:  the  City  of  Life  253 

have  been  beside  it  a  very  good  harbour.  The  later  city 
was  intended  to  be  a  maritime  and  trading  centre,  a  good 
harbour  and  a  convenient  starting-point  for  a  land-road  to 
the  east.  The  type  of  a  merchant  ship,  which  appears  on 
its  coins,  as  on  those  of  Ephesus  (Fig.  16,  p.  229),  indicates 
its  maritime  character :  see  also  Fig.  22,  p.  266. 

Its  maritime  power  was  maintained  by  two  ports.  One 
was  a  small  land-locked  harbour,  the  narrow  entrance  of 
which  could  be  closed  by  a  chain  :  the  other  was  prob- 
ably only  the  adjacent  portion  of  the  gulf  which  served  as 
a  mooring-ground.  The  inner  harbour  lay  in  the  heart  of 
the  modern  city,  where  the  bazaars  now  stand.  In  that 
situation,  half  surrounded  by  houses  and  close  under  the 
hill  of  Pagos,  it  was  readily  liable  to  grow  shallower  and  to 
be  ultimately  filled  up  ;  but  the  small  ancient  ships  found 
it  so  useful  that  the  harbour  authorities  had  to  keep  it  care- 
fully. In  1402  Tamerlane  besieged  the  lower  city,  which 
was  held  by  the  Knights  of  Rhodes  with  their  stronghold 
in  a  castle  commanding  the  harbour  ;  and  he  blocked  the 
entrance  by  a  mole  in  the  process  of  his  operations.  After 
the  entrance  was  once  closed,  the  negligent  government 
of  the  now  Turkish  city  was  not  likely  to  try  to  reopen 
it ;  moreover  as  the  size  of  ships  increased,  the  usefulness 
of  so  small  a  harbour  ceased.  Thus  the  natural  process  of 
filling  up  the  old  harbour  went  on  unchecked  ;  and  it  has 
long  disappeared,  though  it  was  still  visible  in  the  middle 
of  the  eighteenth  century  and  even  later. 

To  its  maritime  character  was  due  the  close  association 
with  Rome  which  Smyrna  formed  at  an  early  period.  From 
the  time  that  the  great  republic  began  to  interfere  in  the 
affairs  of  the  East,  common  interests  maintained  a  firm 
alliance  and   "friendship"  (according  to   the  Latin   term) 


254  XIX.  Smyrna:  the  City  of  Life 

between  Rome  and  Smyrna.  A  common  danger  and  a 
common  enemy  united  them.  At  first  Smyrna  was  strug- 
gling to  maintain  its  freedom  against  the  Seleucid  power, 
and  Rome's  Eastern  policy  sprang  out  of  the  agreement 
which  its  great  enemy  Hannibal  had  made  with  the  Seleucid 
king,  Antiochus  the  Great.  At  a  later  time  Rome  supported 
Smyrna  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  too  great  maritime  power 
of  Rhodes.  As  early  as  195,  when  Antiochus  was  still  at 
the  height  of  his  power,  Smyrna  built  a  temple  and  insti- 
tuted a  worship  of  Rome  ;  this  bold  step  was  the  pledge  of 
uncompromising  adherence  to  the  cause  of  Rome,  while 
its  fortunes  were  still  uncertain.  After  a  century,  when  a 
Smyrnaean  public  assembly  heard  of  the  distress  in  a 
Roman  army  during  the  war  against  Mithridates,  the  citi- 
zens stripped  off  their  own  clothes  to  send  to  the  shivering 
soldiers. 

The  faithfulness  of  Smyrna  to  this  alliance  was  a  just 
ground  of  pride  to  the  city,  and  was  fully  acknowledged 
by  her  powerful  friend.  Cicero  expressed  the  Roman  feel- 
ing that  Smyrna  was  "the  city  of  our  most  faithful  and 
most  ancient  allies  "  ;  and  in  26  A.D.  the  Smyrnaeans  argued 
before  the  Senate  that  the  new  temple  to  be  dedicated 
by  the  Commune  of  Asia  to  Tiberius  should  be  built  in 
Smyrna,  because  of  their  faithful  friendship  dating  from 
a  time  before  the  East  had  learned  that  Rome  was  the 
greatest  power  in  the  world  ;  and  they  were  preferred  to 
all  other  cities  of  the  Province.     Plate  IV. 

The  view  of  Smyrna  in  which  its  character  and  situation 
are  best  seen  is  got  from  the  deck  of  a  ship  lying  out  in  the 
gulf  before  the  city.  The  traveller  from  the  west  sails  up 
an  arm  of  the  sea,  which  runs  far  inland.  At  the  south- 
eastern end  he  finds  Smyrna,  with  the  hills  behind  it  on 


Smyrna :  the  City  of  Life  255 

the  south  and  west,  the  sea  on  its  north  side,  and  on  the 
east  a  beautiful  little  valley,  nine  miles  by  four,  bounded 
by  more  distant  mountains.  The  buildings  of  the  city  rise 
out  of  the  water,  cluster  in  the  hollow  below  the  hills,  and 
on  the  lower  skirts  of  Pagos,  "the  Hill,"  or  straggle  up 
irregularly  towards  the  summit.  There  is  a  wonderful 
feeling  of  brightness,  light,  and  activity  in  the  scene :  in 
such  a  matter  only  the  personal  experience  can  be  stated, 
but  such  is  the  impression  that  the  view  has  always  made 
on  the  present  writer.  The  approach  to  Constantinople 
from  the  east  gives  a  similar  impression ;  and  part  of  the 
reason  lies  in  the  long  land-locked  sea-way  which  leads  to 
the  harbour,  giving  in  both  cases  the  appearance  of  inland 
cities  with  all  the  advantage  of  a  situation  on  the  sea.  The 
view  in  Plate  IV.  is  taken  from  a  point  too  near  the  hill ; 
our  many  attempts  to  get  a  photograph  from  a  proper 
distance  have  been  frustrated  by  various  causes. 

The  Smyrnaeans  were  specially  proud  of  the  beauty  of 
their  city.  The  frequent  legend  on  their  coins,  "First  of 
Asia,"  was  contested  by  Pergamum  and  Ephesus  ;  all  three 
were  first  of  Asia  in  one  respect  or  another :  Smyrna  defined 
her  rank  on  some  coins  as  "  First  of  Asia  in  beauty  and  size  ". 
Strabo  says  its  beauty  was  due  to  the  handsomeness  of 
the  streets,  the  excellence  of  the  paving,  and  the  regular 
arrangement  in  rectangular  blocks.  The  picturesque  ele- 
ment, which  he  does  not  mention,  was  contributed  by  the 
hills  and  the  sea,  to  which  in  modern  times  the  groves 
of  cypress  trees  in  the  large  Turkish  cemeteries  must  be 
added.  Groves  of  trees  in  the  suburbs  are  mentioned  by 
Aristides  as  one  of  the  beauties  of  the  ancient  city.  On 
the  west  the  city  included  a  hill  which  overhangs  the  sea 
and  runs  back  southward  till  it  nearly  joins  the  western 


256  XIX.   Smyrna:  the  City  of  Life 

end  of  Pagos :  in  the  angle  the  road  to  the  south  issued 
through  the  Ephesian  Gate.  The  outer  edge  of  the  western 
hill  afforded  a  strong  line  of  defence,  which  the  wall  of 
Lysimachus  took  advantage  of;  and  Pagos  constituted  an 
ideal  acropolis,  as  well  as  a  striking  ornament  to  crown  the 
beauty  of  the  city. 

The  citizens  were  also  proud  of  their  distinction  in  every 
branch  of  literature ;  and  Apollonius  of  Tyana  is  said  to 
have  encouraged  them  in  this,  and  to  have  advised  them 
to  rest  their  self-esteem  more  in  their  own  character  than 
in  the  beauty  of  their  city :  "  for  though,"  as  he  said, 
"  though  it  is  the  most  beautiful  of  all  cities  under  the  sun, 
and  makes  the  sea  its  own,  and  holds  the  fountains  of 
Zephyrus,  yet  it  is  a  greater  charm  to  wear  a  crown  of 
men  than  a  crown  of  porticoes  and  pictures  and  gold 
beyond  the  standard  of  mankind  :  for  buildings  are  seen 
only  in  their  own  place,  but  men  are  seen  everywhere  and 
spoken  about  everywhere  and  make  their  city  as  vast  as 
the  range  of  countries  which  they  can  visit ". 

The  words  of  Apollonius  show  that  "the  crown  of 
Smyrna "  was  a  familiar  phrase  with  the  Smyrnaeans ; 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  phrase  arose  from  the 
appearance  of  the  hill  Pagos,  with  the  stately  public  build- 
ings on  its  rounded  top  and  the  city  spreading  out  down 
its  rounded  sloping  sides.  In  fact,  the  words  state  plainly 
that  the  crown  of  Smyrna  cons  sted  of  buildings,  and,  in 
the  picturesque  language  of  current  talk  (which  always 
catches  salient  features),  buildings  are  likened  to  a  crown 
because  they  stand  on  a  conspicuous  place  and  in  an  or- 
derly way.  As  to  the  modern  appearance  only  a  personal 
impression  can  be  stated :  "  with  Mo  nt  Pagos  and  its 
ruined  castle  rising  out  of  the  clustering  houses,  it  looks 


Smyrna:  the  City  of  Life  257 

a  queenly  city  '  crowned  with  her  diadem  of  towers ' " : 
so  Mrs.  Ramsay  in  190 1  described  Smyrna  as  it  used  to 
appear  from  the  sea.  Until  about  1890  the  brow  of  the 
rounded  hill  was  crowned  with  a  well-preserved  garland 
of  walls  and  battlements ;  and  the  appearance  of  the 
circling  city,  the  hill  sloping  back  towards  the  centre, 
and  the  frowning  walls  crowning  the  edge  of  the  rounded 
summit,  has  probably  made  the  same  impression  on  many 
travellers. 

Aelius  Aristides,  who  lived  much  in  Smyrna,  can  hardly 
find  language  strong  enough  to  paint  the  beauty  and  the 
crown  of  Smyrna.^  He  compares  the  city,  as  the  ideal 
city  on  earth,  to  the  crown  of  Ariadne  shining  in  the 
heavenly  constellation.  He  describes  it  as  sitting  like  a 
statue  with  its  feet  planted  on  sea-shore  and  harbours  and 
groves  of  trees,  its  middle  parts  poised  equally  above  the 
plain  and  beneath  the  summit,  and  its  top  in  the  distance 
gently  rising  by  hardly  perceptible  gradations  to  the  acro- 
polis, which  offered  an  outlook  over  the  sea  and  the  town,^ 
and  stood  always  a  brilliant  ornament  above  the  city.  Thus 
Smyrna  city  was  a  flower  of  beauty,  such  as  earth  and  sun  had 
never  showed  to  mankind.  He  repeats  the  comparison  to  a 
statue  and  to  a  flower  in  several  of  his  orations.*  The  like- 
ness depends  partly  on  the  appearance  of  the  city  as  sloping 
up  from  the  sea,  partly  on  the  orderly  arrangement  of  the 
parts,  partly  on  the  circular  head  with  its  crown  of  buildings, 
viz.^  Pagos  with  its  acropolis.  The  idea  of  the  crown  is  in 
his  mind,  though  he  varies  the  phrase :  the  truth  was  that 
Aristides  in  his  highly  wrought  orations  would  not  use  a 
figure  tTiat  was  in  everybody's  mouth,  and  he  plays  with  the 
idea  but  rarely  uses  the  word.  Several  of  his  highly  ornate 
sentences   become  clearer  when  we  notice  that  he  is  ex- 


258  XIX.  Smyrna:  the  City  of  Life 

pressing  in  a  series  of  variations  the  idea  of  a  crown  resting 
on  the  summit  of  the  hill. 

When  Aristides  says  that,  since  Smyrna  has  been  re- 
stored after  the  disastrous  earthquake,  "  Spring's  gates  and 
Summer's  are  opened  by  crowns,"  the  reference  to  some 
close  connection  between  Smyrna  and  the  crown  is  so 
marked  that  Reiske  suggests  that  the  Crowns  were  the 
deities  of  flowers  (like  Flora  in  Latin).  We  now  know 
that  the  Crown  of  Smyrna  was  the  head  and  bloom  of  the 
city's  flower.  Again  he  declares  that,  by  the  revival  of 
Smyrna,  "  the  crown  has  been  preserved  to  Ionia  ".^ 

The  comparison  of  Smyrna  to  a  flower  has  a  close  con- 
nection with  the  "  crown ".  The  crown  or  garland  was 
usually  a  circlet  of  flowers ;  and  the  mention  of  a  crown 
immediately  aroused  in  the  ancient  mind  the  thought  of  a 
flower.  Crowns  were  worn  chiefly  in  the  worship  of  the 
gods.  The  worshipper  was  expected  to  have  on  his  head  a 
garland  of  the  flowers  or  foliage  sacred  to  the  god  whose 
rites  he  was  performing.  The  guests  at  an  entertainment 
were  often  regarded  as  worshippers  of  Bacchus  and  wore 
the  sacred  ivy  :  frequently,  also,  the  entertainment  was  a 
feast  connecting  with  the  ritual  of  some  other  deity,  and  the 
crown  varied  accordingly.  Thus  the  ideas  of  the  flower 
and  of  the  crown  suggest  in  their  turn  the  idea  of  the  god 
with  whose  worship  they  were  connected,  i.e.,  the  statue  of 
the  god.  The  tutelary  deity  of  Smyrna  was  the  Mother- 
goddess,  Cybele ;  and  when  Aristides  pictured  Smyrna  as 
a  statue  sitting  with  her  feet  on  the  sea,  and  her  head  rising 
to  heaven  and  crowned  with  a  circlet  of  beautiful  buildings, 
he  had  in  mind  the  patroness  and  guardian  of  the  city,  who 
was  represented  enthroned  and  wearing  a  crown  of  battle- 
ments and  towers.    Her  image  was  one  of  the  most  frequent 


Smyrna:  the  City  of  Life  259 

types  on  the  coins  of  the  city,  and  in  many  alh'ance-coins 
she  appears  for  Smyrna  as  in  Fig.  19.  The  crown  of  Smyrna 
was  the  mural  crown  of  Smyrna's  goddess.     See  p.  267. 

From  the  same  origin  arises  his  repeated  allusion  to  the 
necklace  of  Smyrna.  If  there  was  a  crown  on  the  top  of 
the  head,  a  clearly  marked  street  or  any  line  which  encom- 
passed the  lower  part  of  the  hill  may  be  compared  to  a 
necklace.^  He  speaks  of  the  city  as  drawing  to  itself  its 
various  ornaments  of  sea  and  suburbs  in  a  variegated  neck- 
lace :  a  figurative  expression  which  recalls  the  chain  of  the 


Fig.  19. — The  Goddess  of  Smyrna. 

Seven  Stars  hanging  from  the  hand  of  the  Divine  Author 
of  the  Seven  Letters  (as  described  in  the  Ephesian  Letter : 
see  p.  239). 

But  what  Aristides  chiefly  thought  of,  when  he  mentions 
the  necklace,  was  the  splendid  Street  of  Gold,  which  he  al- 
ludes to  several  times  in  a  more  or  less  veiled  and  figurative 
way.  He  mentions  once  the  streets  that  took  their  names 
from  temples  and  from  gold.  Apollonius  (as  already 
quoted)  alludes  in  similar  figurative  style  to  the  gold  of 
Smyrna,  and  connects  it  with  the  crown  of  Smyrna,  which 


26o  XIX.  Smyrna:  the  City  of  Life 

shows  that  it  crossed  the  sloping  hill,  and  by  its  conspicuous 
buildings  contributed  to  that  orderly  arrangement  of  edi- 
fices which  constituted  the  idea  of  the  crown,  Aristides, 
likewise,  refers  to  this  magnificent  street  when  he  says  that, 
as  you  traverse  the  city  from  west  to  east,  you  go  from  a 
temple  to  a  temple  and  from  a  hill  to  a  hill.  It  is  sug- 
gested in  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  iv.,  p.  554, 
that  this  street  ran  from  the  Temple  of  Zeus  Akraios  to 
the  Temple  of  the  Mother-goddess  Cybele  Sipylene.  The 
latter  was  probably  on  the  hill  Tepejik  on  the  eastern  out- 
skirts of  the  city :  the  former  has  been  identified  recently 
by  Mr.  Fontrier,  the  chief  authority  on  the  topography  of 
Smyrna,  with  certain  remains  on  the  western  slope  of  Pa^os.^ 
A  street  connecting  those  two  temples  would  curve  round 
the  lower  slopes  of  the  hill  (owing  to  the  conformation  of 
the  ground),  and  would  by  its  length  and  its  fine  buildings 
form  a  conspicuous  band  which  might  well  be  compared  in 
ornate  rhetoric  to  a  circlet  of  jewels  round  the  neck  of  the 
statue. 

The  comparison  of  Smyrna  to  a  statue  appears  in  the 
address  of  Apollonius,  and  it  is  evident  either  that  the 
comparison  passed  through  his  influence  into  Smyrnaean 
usage  and  became  a  current  expression,  or  that  the  bio- 
grapher of  Apollonius  deliberately  attributed  to  the  older 
orator  a  simile  which  was  commonly  used  in  Smyrna  (for 
Aristides,  in  all  his  ornate  descriptions  of  Smyrna,  catches 
up  and  elaborates  the  expressions  familiar  among  the 
citizens).  The  latter  supposition  is  more  probable :  the 
biographer's  custom  was  to  select  prominent  and  recog- 
nised characteristics  of  a  great  city  like  Smyrna,  and  show 
that  they  were  all  due  to  wise  counsel  given  by  the  divinely 
inspired  Apollonius, 


Smyrna  :  the  City  of  Life  261 

Thus  Apollonius  is  described  as  recommending  to  the 
citizens  a  certain  strenuous  activity  of  spirit  as  the  true 
path  to  honour  and  success  for  their  city:  "competitive 
unanimity  "  is  his  phrase.  Aristides  mentions  as  character- 
istic of  Smyrna  "  the  grace  which  extends  over  every  part 
hke  a  rainbow,  and  strains  the  city  like  a  lyre  into  tenseness 
harmonious  with  itself  and  with  its  beautiful  surroundings, 
and  the  brightness  which  pervades  every  part  and  reaches 
up  to  heaven,  like  the  glitter  of  the  bronze  armour  in 
Homer  "J  In  these  words  Aristides  is  playing  on  a 
common  idea  in  Greek  philosophy,  which  is  applied  by 
Apollonius  to  Smyrna.  The  application  is  distinctly  an 
older  idea  taken  up  by  Aristides ;  and  the  probability  is 
that  this  again  was  the  recognised  character  of  Smyrna, 
which  Philostratus  in  his  usual  way  derives  from  the  wise 
counsel  given  by  his  hero. 

The  prevalent  wind,  now  called  Imbat,  i.e.  Landward, 
sets  up  the  long  gulf  from  the  western  sea  ;  and  blows  with 
wonderful  regularity  through  the  hot  weather,  rising  almost 
every  day  as  the  sun  grows  warm,  blowing  sometimes  with 
considerable  strength  in  the  early  afternoon,  and  dying 
down  towards  sunset.  This  westerly  breeze,  Zephyrus,  was 
in  ancient  times,  and  is  still,  reckoned  by  the  inhabitants  as 
one  of  the  great  advantages  of  their  city.  It  breathes  a 
pleasant  coolness  through  the  city  in  the  heat  of  summer ; 
and  people  luxuriate  in  its  refreshing  breath  and  never 
tire  of  lauding  its  delightful  effect.  In  ancient  times  they 
boasted  in  the  words  of  Apollonius  (already  quoted)  that 
they  possessed  the  fountains  of  Zephyr,  and  could  therefore 
reckon  with  certainty  on  continuous  westerly  breezes.  As 
Aristides  says,  "  the  winds  blow  through  every  part  of  the 
town,  and  make  it  fresh  like  a  grove  of  trees  ".     The  inhabit- 


262  XIX.  Smyrna:  the  City  of  Life 

ants  never  realised  that  the  Zephyr  brings  with  it  some  dis- 
advantages. It  comes  laden  with  moisture,  and  it  prevents 
free  passage  of  the  drainage  from  the  city  to  the  open  gulf. 

Accordinjj  to  Strabo,  the  one  defect  in  the  situation  of 
Smyrna  was  that  the  lowest  parts  of  the  city  were  difficult 
to  drain.  The  level  has  risen  in  modern  times  through 
the  accumulation  of  soil ;  but  in  ancient  times  there  was 
little  difference  between  the  level  of  sea  and  land  until  the 
rise  of  the  hills  was  reached.  The  difficulty  of  drainage, 
however,  was  not  due  solely  to  the  lowness  of  the  level. 
It  was  aggravated  by  the  winds.  The  prevalent  wind 
blowing  eastwards  up  the  gulf  heaps  up  the  water  on  the 
shore,  and  prevents  the  discharge  from  finding  its  way  out 
to  sea.  Hence  in  modern  time  there  is  often  a  malodour 
on  the  quay  when  the  west  wind  is  blowing  fresh. 

But  the  people  of  Smyrna  did  not  mention  this  or  any 
other  defect  of  their  city  in  talking  with  others.  Municipal 
rivalry  and  local  pride  were  keen  and  strong  in  ancient 
times.  The  narrower  Greek  conception  of  patriotism  which 
restricted  it  to  the  limits  of  the  city  made  those  feelings  far 
more  powerful  in  ancient  times ;  and  Rome  tried  in  vain  to 
put  Imperial  in  the  place  of  local  patriotism  :  she  could 
plant  the  seeds  of  a  wider  feeling  and  raise  it  to  a  certain 
height,  but  the  growth  was  not  so  strong  and  deep-rooted 
as  the  municipal  pride. 

Smyrna  boasted  that  it  was  the  city  of  Homer,  who  had 
been  born  and  brought  up  beside  the  sacred  river  Meles. 
Homer  is  one  of  the  most  frequent  types  on  coins  of  the 
city ;  and  there  was  a  temple  called  Homereion  in  the  city. 
The  same  name  was  applied  to  a  small  bronze  coin,  which 
showed  the  poet  sitting,  holding  a  volumen  on  his  knees, 
and  supporting  his  chin  on  his  right  hand. 


Smyrna :  the  City  of  Life  263 

According  to  the  allusions  of  Aristides,  the  Meles  was  a 
stream  close  to  the  city,  between  it  and  the  open  plain, 
having  an  extremely  short  course,  so  that  its  mouth  was 
close  to  its  source ;  it  flowed  with  an  equable  stream,  un- 
varying in  summer  and  winter ;  its  channel  was  more  or  less 
artificial ;  and  its  water  was  not  cold  in  winter  (when 
Aristides  bathed  in  it  by  order  of  the  god  Asklepios,  and 
found  it  pleasantly  warm).  These  characteristics  suit  only 
the  splendid  fountains  of  Diana's  Bath,  Khalka-Bunar,  on 
the  east  outskirts  of  the  modern  city,  and  the  stream  that 


FiQ.  20. — The  River-god  Meles. 

flows  thence  to  the  sea  with  an  even  current  and  volume. 
The  source  is  at  so  low  a  level  that  an  artificial  channel  has 
always  been  needed  to  carry  off  the  water.  In  modern 
time  the  locality  has  been  entirely  altered ;  the  water  is 
dammed  up  to  supply  part  of  the  city;  the  surplus  runs 
off  through  a  straight  cutting  to  the  sea,  and  all  the 
picturesqueness  of  the  scene  has  been  lost  with  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  trees  and  the  natural  surroundings. 

This  identification  is  confirmed  by  the  representation  of 
the  god  Meles,  given  on  a  coin  of  Smyrna  (Fig.  20).     He 


264  XIX.  Smyrna:  the  City  of  Life 

appears  in  the  ordinary  form,  which  Greek  art  appropri- 
ated to  the  idea  of  a  river-god,  except  that  he  has  not  a 
cornucopia  resting  on  his  bent  left  arm.  The  cornucopia 
symbolised  the  fertilising  power  of  the  river,  which  supplies 
the  water  that  the  dry  soil  of  Asia  everywhere  needs :  the 
river  turns  an  arid  desert  into  a  garden.  But  the  Meles, 
flowing  down  a  little  way  from  the  source  to  the  sea,  has  no 
opportunity  for  diffusing  fertility,  and  the  cornucopia  would 
be  unsuitable  to  it.  It  was  a  stream  to  give  pleasure  and 
health  by  its  fountains,  and  was  worshipped  as  a  healing 
power ;  but  its  water  rises  at  so  low  a  level  that  it  was  not 
used  by  the  agriculturist. 

The  patron-goddess  of  Smyrna  was  a  local  variety  of 
Cybele,  known  as  the  Sipylene  Mother.  Like  the  Artemis 
of  Ephesus  (p.  217),  her  oldest  home  was  in  the  mountains 
on  the  north  of  the  valley,  famous  in  myth  and  history  as 
Sipylos,  where  Niobe  dwelt  and  Tantalus  reigned  ;  and  she 
came  down  to  the  plain  with  her  worshippers,  and  took  up 
her  abode  "  Before-the-City  ".  She  became  a  more  moral- 
ised conception  in  the  Ionian  Greek  city ;  and  Nemesis  was 
the  aspect  which  she  bore  to  the  Greek  mind.^  In  Smyrna 
alone,  of  all  the  Greek  cities.  Nemesis  was  regarded  not  as 
a  single  figure,  but  as  a  pair.  The  twin  figures  Nemesis 
often  appear  as  a  type  on  coins  of  the  city :  they  stand  as  a 
rule  on  the  ground,  one  holding  a  bridle,  the  other  a  cubit- 
rule  with  a  wheel  at  her  feet,  but  in  the  coin  represented  in 
Fig.  2 1  the  wheel  becomes  a  chariot  drawn  by  griffins,  on 
which  the  twin  goddesses  are  borne. 

Aristides  describes  the  plain  of  Smyrna  as  won  from  the 
sea,  but  not  in  the  same  way  as  some  plains  {e.g.,  those  of 
Ephesus  and  Miletus)  were  won,  viz..,  by  silting  up.  Prob- 
ably geologists  would  confirm  his  statement  that  the  sea 


Smyrna :  the  City  of  Life 


265 


once  extended  much  farther  to  the  East.  But  when  he 
wrote  the  change  had  not  taken  place  in  recent  time ;  and 
Httle  change  has  taken  place  between  the  first  century  and 
the  twentieth.  But  in  two  respects  there  has  been  change. 
The  coast  in  front  of  the  city  has  advanced,  the  city  has 
encroached  a  good  deal  on  the  sea,  and  the  inner  harbour 
has  been  entirely  filled  up.  But  in  the  south-eastern  corner 
of  the  gulf,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Meles,  the  sea  has  en- 
croached on  the  land.  The  steady  action  of  the  west  wind 
through  many  months  of  every  year  drives  the  sea  on  that 


Fig.  21. — ^The  twin  goddesses  Nemesis  of  Smyrna. 

corner  and  washes  away  the  coast  slowly  but  steadily.  But 
the  rivulets  which  flow  into  the  eastern  end  of  the  gulf  are 
all  mountain  streamlets,  which  carry  little  silt,  but  wash 
down  gravel  and  pebbles  into  the  plain,  and  are  dry  or 
almost  dry  in  the  hot  seasoa  The  Meles  alone  flows  with 
a  full  and  unvarying  current,  but  its  course  is  very  short. 

Under  the  Roman  government  Smyrna  enjoyed  the 
eventless  existence  of  a  city  which  suffered  few  disasters 
and  had  an  almost  unbroken  career  of  prosperity.  From 
the  sixth  century  onwards  it  was  the  only  important  harbour 


266  XIX.  Smyrna:  the  City  of  Life 


for  inland  caravan  trade  on  the  west  coast  of  Asia  Minor ; 
and  its  importance  in  comparison  with  other  cities  of  the 
coast  necessarily  increased  as  time  passed.  In  the  cen. 
turies  that  followed  the  lot  of  every  city  in  Asia  Minor  was 
an  unhappy  one  ;  and  Smyrna  suffered  with  the  rest.  But 
it  was  the  last  to  suffer  from  the  eastern  raids  ;  and  it  was 
generally  the  ally  of  western  powers  in  that  time,  as  once 
it  had  been  the  ally  of  Rome.  The  circumstances  of  sea 
and  land  gave  it  lasting  vitality.  Frequent  earthquakes 
have  devastated  it,  but  only  seemed  to  give  it  the  oppor- 


Fio.  22. — The  Alliance  of  Smyrna  and  Thyatira. 
tunity  of  restoring  itself  more  beautifully  than  before.     No 
conquest  and  no  disaster  could  permanently  injure  it.     It 
occupied  the  one  indispensable  situation  ;  it  was  the  door- 
keeper of  a  world.     Plate  V. 

The  "  alliances  "  of  Smyrna  were  very  numerous  ;  and  she 
was  the  only  city  which  had  formed  that  kind  of  engage- 
ment for  mutual  recognition  of  religious  rites  and  privileges 
with  all  the  rest  of  the  Seven  Cities.  As  a  specimen  of 
these,  Fig.  22  shows  an  "alliance"  with  Thyatira.  The 
Amazon  Smyrna,  the  mythical  foundress  of  the  ancient 
iEolic  city,  armed  with  the  Amazons'  weapon,  the  double- 


Smyrna :  the  City  of  Life  267 

axe,  wearing  the  short  tunic  and  high  boots  of  the  huntress 
and  warrior,  holds  out  her  right  hand  to  greet  the  peaceful 
figure  of  Thyatira,  who  is  dressed  in  the  long  tunic  and 
mantle  (peplos)  of  a  Greek  lady,  and  rests  her  raised  left 
hand  on  a  sceptre.  Both  wear  the  mural  crown,  which 
indicated  the  genius  of  a  city.  Behind  the  foot  of  Smyrna 
appears  the  prow  of  a  ship. 

Its  position  saved  it  from  conquest  till  all  other  cities  of 
the  land  had  long  been  under  Turkish  rule ;  and  its  com- 
mercial relations  with  the  west  made  it  the  great  stronghold 
of  the  European  spirit  in  Asia  Minor.  The  Knights  of  St. 
John  held  it  during  the  fourteenth  century.  Even  after 
Pagos  was  captured  by  the  Turks,  the  castle  on  the  inner 
harbour  was  a  Christian  stronghold  till  Tamerlane  at  last 
took  it  in  1402.  Since  then  Smyrna  has  been  a  Turkish 
city;  but  the  Christian  element  has  always  been  strong 
and  at  the  present  time  outnumbers  the  Mohammedan  in 
the  proportion  of  three  to  one ;  and  the  city  is  called  by 
the  Turks  Infidel  Smyrna,  Giaour  Ismir. 

In  the  Byzantine  ecclesiastical  order,  Smyrna  was  at  an 
early  time  separated  from  the  rest  of  Asia,  and  made  in- 
dependent of  Ephesus  (autokephalos).  In  the  new  order 
which  takes  its  name  from  Leo  VI.  it  appears  as  a  metro- 
polis with  six  subject  bishoprics  on  the  shores  of  the  gulf 
or  in  the  lower  Hermus  Valley, 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  LETTER  TO  THE  CHURCH  IN  SMYRNA. 

These  things  saith  the  first  and  the  last,  which  was  dead,  and  lived  : 

I  know  thy  tnbiclation^  and  thy  poverty  (but  thou  art  rich),  and  the 
blasphemy  of  them  which  say  they  are  Jews,  and  they  are  not,  but  are  a 
synagogue  of  Satan.  Fear  not  the  things  which  thou  art  about  to  suffer : 
behold,  the  devil  is  about  to  cast  some  of  you  into  prison,  that  ye  may  be 
tried  ;  and  ye  shall  have  tribulation  ten  days.  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death, 
and  I  will  give  thee  the  crown  of  life. 

He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  to  the  churches. 

He  that  overcometh  shall  not  be  hurt  of  the  second  death. 

The  letter  to  the  Smyrnaeans  forms  in  many  ways  a  marked 

contrast  to  the  Ephesian  letter;  it  is  constructed  exactly 

on   the  same  plan,  but  the  topics  are  of  a  very  different 

kind.     Of  all  the  seven  letters  this  is  expressed  in  the  most 

continuous  and  unbroken  tone  of  laudation.     It  is  instinct 

with   life  and  joy.     The  writer   is  in  thorough  sympathy 

with  the  Church  which  he  is  addressing ;  he  does  not  feel 

towards   it   merely  that  rather  cold  admiration  which  he 

expresses  for  the  noble  history  of  the  Ephesian  Church,  a 

history  which,  alas  !  belonged  only  to  the  past :  he  is  filled 

with  warm  affection.     The  joy  that  brightens  the  letter  is 

caused  not  by  ease  and  comfort  and  pleasures,  but  by  the 

triumph  over  hardship  and  persecution,  by  superiority  to 

circumstances ;  and  the  life  that  invigorates  and  warms  it 

is  that  strong  vitality  which   overcomes   death   and   rises 

victorious  from  apparent  dissolution. 

Another  marked  difference  between  the  two  letters  it 

(268) 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Smyrna       269 

this.  While  the  Ephesian  letter  appeals  throughout  to  the 
past  history  of  the  Church  in  Ephesus,  and  attempts  to 
reuse  a  fresh  enthusiasm  among  the  congregation  by  the 
memory  of  their  previous  glory  as  Christians,  the  Smyr- 
naean  letter  is  to  a  remarkable  degree  penetrated  with  local 
feeling  and  urban  patriotism,  which  must  be  pointed  out 
in  the  details,  one  by  one. 

The  Smyrnaean  Church  is  addressed  by  "  the  first  and 
the  last,  which  was  dead  and  lived  ". 

The  meaning  of  this  opening  address  is  obscured  by  the 
unfortunate  mistranslation,  which  mars  both  the  Authorised 
and  the  Revised  Versions,  "  was  dead  and  lived  again ". 
The  insertion  of  this  word  again  is  unjustified  and  unjusti- 
fiable :  there  is  nothing  in  the  Greek  corresponding  to  it, 
and  the  quotations  from  Matthew  ix.  18,  John  v.  25,  Ezekiel 
xxxvii.  3  (which  Alford  gives  in  illustration)  do  not  con- 
stitute sufficient  defence.  The  analogy  of  Rev.  xiii.  2  ff. 
corroborates  the  plain  sense  of  this  letter.  The  idea  is, 
not  that  life  begins  a  second  time  after  a  period  of  death, 
but  that  life  persists  in  and  through  death.  The  Divine 
Sender  of  the  letter  to  Smyrna  "  was  dead  and  lived"  and 
so  likewise  Smyrna  itself  "was  dead  and  lived".  If  any- 
thing should  be  inserted  in  the  translation  to  make  the 
meaning  quite  clear,  the  word  needed  is  yet^  "  which  was 
dead  and  yet  lived  ". 

Again,  the  phrase  '•'■was  dead"  also  is  not  an  exact 
equivalent  of  the  Greek  words  {iyevero  veKpo^i) :  it  would 
be  nearer  the  true  force  of  the  Greek  to  render  *'  became 
dead  "  or  "  became  a  corpse  ". 

All  Smyrnaean  readers  would  at  once  appreciate  the 
striking  analogy  to  the  early  history  of  their  own  city 
which  lies  in  that  form  of  address.      Strabo,  as  usual,  fur- 


270     XX.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Smyrna 

nishes  th"  best  commentary.  He  relates  that  the  Lydiana 
destro}'2d  the  ancient  city  of  Smyrna,  and  that  for  four 
hundred  years ^  there  was  no  "city,"  but  merely  a  state 
composed  of  villages  scattered  over  the  plain  and  the  hill- 
sides around.  Like  Him  who  addresses  it,  Smyrna  literally 
^^ became  dead  and  yet  lived".  A  practical  corroboration 
of  these  last  words  is  found  in  an  inscription  belonging  to 
the  fourth  century  B.C.,^  which  mentions  Smyrna  as  existing 
during  the  period  when,  as  Strabo  says,  it  had  been  de- 
stroyed and  had  not  been  refounded.  During  those  four 
centuries  Smyrna  had  ceased  to  exist  as  a  Greek  city,  but 
it  lived  on  as  a  village  state  after  the  Anatolian  system : 
then  the  new  period  began,  and  it  was  restored  as  an 
autonomous,  self-governing  Greek  city,  electing  its  own 
magistrates  and  administering  its  own  affairs  according  to 
the  laws  which  it  made  for  itself 

In  a  sense  both  Smyrna  and  Ephesus  had  changed  their 
character  and  situation  in  ancient  time ;  but  the  salient  fact 
in  the  one  case  was  simple  change  of  the  city's  position,  in 
the  other  apparent  destruction  and  death  under  which  lay 
hidden  a  real  continuance  of  life.  Strabo  emphatically 
says  that  Smyrna  was  obliterated  from  the  roll  of  cities 
for  four  centuries  ;  but  other  authorities  speak  of  Smyrna  as 
a  State  existing  during  that  period  of  annihilation.  The 
words  of  the  ancients  literally  are  that  Smyrna  was  dead 
and  yet  lived.  The  two  letters  are  adapted  to  the  his- 
torical facts  with  delicate  discrimination ;  change  is  the 
word  in  the  first  letter,  life  under  and  amid  death  is  the 
expression  in  the  second. 

The  idea  of  life  is,  of  course,  to  be  understood  in  its 
fullest  sense  when  applied  to  a  Christian  congregation. 
It  implies  the  energetic  discharge  of  all   the  duties  and 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Smyrna      271 

functions  of  a  Church.  The  contrast  between  apparent 
destruction  and  real  vitah'ty  is  expressed  in  several  forms 
through  this  letter.  The  Church  seemed  poor,  but  was 
rich.  It  suffered  apparent  tribulation,  but  was  really  tri- 
umphant and  crowned  with  the  crown  of  life.  Its  enemies 
on  the  other  hand  were  pretenders  ;  they  boasted  that  they 
were  the  true  Jews,  but  they  were  not ;  they  claimed  to  be 
the  people  of  God,  but  they  were  only  a  synagogue  of 
Satan. 

After  the  introductory  address,  the  letter  begins  with  the 
usual  statement :  the  writer  has  full  knowledge  of  the  past 
history  of  the  Smyrnaean  Church.  The  history  of  the 
Church  had  been  a  course  of  suffering,  and  not,  as  the 
Ephesian  history  had  been,  of  achievement  and  distinction. 
The  Smyrnaean  Church  had  had  a  more  trying  and  diffi- 
cult career  than  any  other  of  the  Asian  Churches.  It  had 
been  exposed  to  constant  persecution.  It  was  poor  in  all 
that  is  ordinarily  reckoned  as  wealth  ;  but  it  was  rich  in 
the  estimation  of  those  who  can  judge  of  the  realities  of 
life.  There  is  here  the  same  contrast  between  appearance 
and  reality  as  in  the  opening  address  :  apparent  poverty 
and  real  wealth,  apparent  death  and  real  life. 

The  humble  condition  and  the  sufferings  of  the  Smyr- 
naean Church  are  in  this  letter  pointedly  connected  with 
the  action  of  the  Jews,  and  especially  with  the  calumnies 
which  they  had  circulated  in  the  city  and  among  the  magis- 
trates and  the  Roman  officials.  The  precise  facts  cannot 
be  discovered,  but  the  general  situation  is  unmistakable; 
the  Smyrnaean  Jews  were  for  some  reason  more  strongly 
and  bitterly  hostile  to  the  Christians  than  the  Jews  of  Asia 
generally.  But  the  Asian  Jews  are  little  more  than  a 
name  to  us.      From  general   considerations  we   can   form 


272     XX.    The  Letter  to  the  Chtirch  in  Smyrna 

some  opinion  about  their  position  in  the  cities,  as  is  shown 
in  chapter  xii. ;  but  in  respect  of  details  we  know  nothing. 
Accordingly  we  cannot  even  speculate  as  to  the  reason 
for  the  exceptionally  strong  anti-Christian  feeling  among 
the  Smyrnaean  Jews.  We  must  simply  accept  the  fact ; 
but  we  may  certainly  conclude  from  it  that  the  national 
feeling  among  them  was  unusually  strong. 

In  an  inscription  of  the  second  century  ^  "  the  quondam 
Jews"  are  mentioned  as  contributing  10,000  denarii  to 
some  public  purpose  connected  with  the  embellishment  of 
the  city.  Bockh  understood  this  enigmatic  phrase  to  mean 
persons  who  had  forsworn  their  faith  and  placed  themselves 
on  the  same  level  as  the  ordinary  pagan  Smyrnaeans ;  but 
this  is  certainly  wrong.  Mommsen's  view  must,  so  far  as 
we  can  judge,  be  accepted,  that  "  the  quondam  Jews  "  were 
simply  the  body  of  the  Jews  of  Smyrna,  called  "  quondam  " 
because  they  were  no  longer  recognised  as  a  separate 
nation  by  the  Roman  law  (as  they  had  been  before  A.D. 
70).  The  reference  proves  that  they  maintained  in  practice 
so  late  as  130-37  their  separate  standing  in  the  city  as  a 
distinct  people,  apart  from  the  rest  of  the  citizens,  although 
legally  they  were  no  longer  anything  but  one  section  of 
the  general  population.  Many  Jews  possessed  the  rights 
of  citizenship  in  some  at  least  of  the  Ionian  cities,  such  as 
Smyrna.*  The  quondam  Jews  who  made  that  contribution 
to  embellish  Smyrna  were  probably  for  the  most  part  citi- 
zens. 

We  may  also  probably  infer  from  the  strong  hatred  felt 
by  the  Jews,  that  at  first  many  of  the  Christians  of  Smyrna 
had  been  converted  from  Judaism.  It  was  the  Jewish 
Christians,  and  not  the  pagan  converts,  whom  the  national 
Jews  hated  so  violently.     Except  in  so  far  as  the  converts 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Smyrna      273 

had  been  proselytes  of  the  synagogue,  the  Jews  were  not 
likely  to  care  very  much  whether  Pagans  were  converted  to 
Christianity :  their  violent  hatred  was  roused  by  the  re- 
negade Jews  (as  they  thought)  like  St.  Paul,  who  tried  to 
place  the  unclean  Pagans  on  a  level  with  themselves. 

The  action  of  the  Jews  in  the  martyrdom  of  Polycarp 
must  be  regarded  (as  a  succession  of  writers  have  re- 
marked) as  corroborating  the  evidence  of  this  letter.  In 
that  case  the  eagerness  of  the  Jews  to  expedite  the  execu- 
tion of  the  Christian  leader  actually  overpowered  their 
objection  to  profane  the  Sabbath  day,  and  they  came  into 
the  gay  assemblage  in  the  Stadium,  bringing  faggots  to 
make  the  fire  in  which  Polycarp  should  be  consumed.  It 
must,  however,  be  observed  that  they  are  not  said  to  have 
been  present  at  the  sports  in  the  Stadium.  The  games 
were  over,  as  usual,  at  about  the  fifth  hour,  11  A.M.  There- 
after the  rather  irregular  trial  of  Polycarp  was  held ;  and 
about  2  P.M.  the  execution  took  place,  and  the  most  bitter 
opponents  of  the  Christians  had  ample  time  to  hear  the 
news,  assemble  to  hear  the  sentence,  and  to  help  in  carry- 
ing it  into  effect.  Undoubtedly,  many  who  would  abhor  to 
appear  as  spectators  of  the  games  on  a  Sabbath  would  feel 
justified  in  putting  to  death  an  enemy  of  their  faith  on  that 
day.^ 

Severe  trials  still  awaited  the  Church  in  Smyrna :  "  The 
devil  is  about  to  cast  some  of  you  into  prison  ".  .  .  .  The 
expression  must  be  understood  as  symbolical ;  and  it  would 
not  be  permissible  to  take  "prison"  as  implying  that  im- 
prisonment was  the  severest  punishment  which  had  as  yet 
been,  or  was  likely  to  be,  inflicted  on  Christians.  The  in- 
ference has  even  been  drawn  from  this  passage  that  death 
was  still  hardly  known  as  a  penalty  for  the  crime  of  Christi- 


274     ^X-    ^^^  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Smyrna 

anity,  and  was  not  even  thought  of  as  a  possibility  in  the 
immediate  future.  In  fact,  such  a  sense  for  the  term  "  prison  " 
would  be  an  anachronism,  introducing  a  purely  modern  idea. 
Imprisonment  was  not  recognised  by  the  law  as  a  punish- 
ment for  crime  in  the  Greek  or  the  Roman  procedure.  The 
State  would  not  burden  itself  with  the  custody  of  criminals, 
except  as  a  preliminary  stage  to  their  trial,  or  in  the  interval 
between  trial  and  execution.  Fine,  exile,  and  death  con- 
stituted the  usual  range  of  penalties ;  and  in  many  cases, 
where  a  crime  would  in  modern  times  be  punished  by 
imprisonment,  it  was  visited  with  death  in  Roman  law. 

The  "prison"  into  which  the  devil  would  cast  some  of 
the  Smyrnaean  Christians  must  be  understood  as  a  brief 
epitome  of  all  the  sufferings  that  lay  before  them  ;  the  first 
act,  viz.^  their  apprehension  and  imprisonment,  is  to  be 
taken  as  implying  all  the  usual  course  of  trial  and  punish- 
ment through  which  passed  the  martyrs  described  in  the 
later  parts  of  the  book.  Prison  was  thought  of  by  the 
writer  of  the  letter  as  the  prelude  to  execution,  and  was 
understood  in  that  sense  by  his  readers. 

That  this  is  so  is  proved  by  the  promise  that  follows, 
"  Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and  I  will  give  thee  the  crown 
of  life "  :  Endure  all  that  falls  to  the  lot  of  the  true  and 
steadfast  Christians,  beginning  with  arrest  and  imprison- 
ment, ending  with  execution  :  that  death  will  not  be  the 
end,  but  only  the  entrance  to  the  true  life,  the  birthday  of 
martyrdom.     The  martyr  "was  dead  and  lived". 

The  importance  of  this  idea  in  the  letter  is  proved  by  the 
conclusion,  where  it  recurs  in  a  slightly  varied  form :  "  he 
that  overcometh  snail  not  be  hurt  of  the  second  death ". 
It  is  this  triumph  over  death  that  constitutes  the  guiding 
thought  of  the  whole  letter,  just  as  change  was  the  guiding 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sinyrna      275 

thought  of  the  Ephesian  letter.  He  that  persists  to  the 
end,  he  that  is  steadfast  and  overcomes,  shall  triumph  over 
death :  apparent  death  affects  him ;  but  not  the  complete 
and  permanent  death.  Here,  again,  the  final  promise  is 
seen  to  be  peculiarly  appropriate  to  the  character  and 
needs  of  the  persons  addressed. 

The  mention  of  the  crown  would  carry  a  special  meaning 
to  the  Smyrnaean  readers,  and  would  rouse  in  their  hearts 
many  old  associations.  The  "  crown  of  Smyrna  "  had  been 
before  their  eyes  and  minds  from  childhood  (as  was  shown 
in  chapter  xix.).  The  promise  now  is  that  a  new  crown 
shall  be  given  to  Smyrna.  She  shall  wear  no  longer  a 
mere  crown  of  buildings  and  towers,  nor  even  the  crown 
of  good  citizens  which  Apollonius  advised  her  to  put  on, 
but  a  crown  of  life.  The  earthly  Smyrna  wore  a  mural 
crown  like  that  of  her  patron  goddess :  the  true  Smyrna 
shall  v,;ear  a  crown  suited  for  the  servants  of  the  one  living 
God. 

Another  expression  which  must  be  taken  in  a  figurative 
or  symbolic  sense  is,  "  thou  shalt  Jiave  tribulation  ten  days  ". 
The  "  ten  days "  means  simply  a  period  which  can  be 
measured,  z>.,  which  comes  to  an  end.  The  persecution 
will  rage  for  a  time,  but  it  will  not  be  permanent.  The 
Church  will  live  through  it  and  survive  it,  and  has  there- 
fore no  reason  to  be  afraid  of  it. 

The  expression  "■'  be  faithful"  again,  would  inevitably  re- 
mind Smyrnaean  readers  of  the  history  of  their  city,  which 
had  been  the  faithful  friend  and  ally  of  Rome  for  centuries. 
It  cannot  be  a  mere  accident  that  the  only  one  of  the  Seven 
Churches,  with  which  the  epithet  faithful  is  associated  in 
the  letters,  is  the  Church  of  that  city  which  had  established 
its  historic  claim  to  the  epithet  in  three  centuries  of  loyalty, 


276     XX.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Smyrna 

the  city  which  had  been  faithful  to  Rome  in  danger  and 
difficulty,  the  city  whose  citizens  had  stripped  off  their  own 
garments  to  send  to  the  Roman  soldiers  when  suffering  from 
cold  and  the  hardships  of  a  winter  campaign.  The  honour 
in  which  Smyrna  was  always  held  by  the  Romans  was  pro- 
claimed to  be  a  return  pro  singulari  fide  (Livy,  xxxviii.,  39) ; 
to  Cicero  it  was  "  the  most  faithful  of  our  alLes  " ;  and  its 
services  were  rewarded  in  A.D.  26  by  the  permission  granted 
to  it,  in  preference  even  to  Ephesus  and  Sardis,  to  dedicate 
the  second  Asian  temple  to  the  reigning  Emperor  Tiberius 
and  his  family. 

The  same  reflection  occurs  here  as  in  the  case  of  Ephesus. 
Some  may  think  that  such  an  explanation  of  the  reason 
why  this  special  form  of  words  in  the  exordium  of  this  letter 
was  chosen,  and  why  the  epithet  "  faithful "  is  applied  to  the 
Church,  is  fanciful  and  even  unworthy.  It  is  evident,  how- 
ever, that  the  study  which  is  here  presented  has  been  made 
from  a  different  point  of  view.  It  is  not  in  accordance  with 
right  method  to  form  a  priori  theories  of  what  is  right  or 
wrong,  dignified  or  undignified,  possible  or  impossible,  in  the 
interpretation  of  St.  John's  words.  The  only  true  method  is 
to  take  the  words,  and  ask  what  they  mean,  and  what  must 
the  readers,  for  whom  they  were  in  the  first  place  written, 
have  understood  from  them.  Now  considering  how  exactly 
those  words,  "  was  dead  and  lived"  applied  to  ancient 
Smyrna,  it  seems  certain  that  the  reference  must  inevit- 
ably have  been  appreciated  by  the  Smyrnaeans  ;  and  if 
so,  it  cannot  have  been  an  accidental  coincidence.  The 
writer  deliberately  chose  those  words  to  appeal  to  local 
sentiment  and  patriotism.  The  same  remark  applies  to 
his  choice  of  ^'faithful "  as  the  appropriate  epithet  for  the 
Smyrnaean  Church.      Not  merely   had  the  Church  been 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Smyrna      277 

faithful ;  the  whole  city  regarded  faithfulness  as  the  chief 
glory  of  Smyrna  ;  and  the  topic  must  have  been  familiar  to 
all  inhabitants,  and  a  commonplace  in  patriotic  speeches. 

It  is  evident  that  the  writer  of  the  Seven  Letters  did  not 
discourage  such  feelings  of  attachment  to  one's  native  city, 
but  encouraged  local  patriotism  and  used  it  as  a  basis  on 
which  to  build  up  a  strenuous  Christian  life.  The  practical 
effect  of  such  teaching  as  this  is  that  a  Christian  could  be 
a  patriot,  proud  of  and  interested  in  the  glory  and  the 
history  of  his  own  city. 

This  gives  a  different  impression  of  the  writer's  character 
from  what  might  be  gathered  from  later  parts  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse ;  but  it  is  not  good  method  to  take  parts  of  a  book  and 
determine  the  author's  character  from  them  alone.  Rather, 
the  Seven  Letters  are  a  truer  index  to  the  writer's  character 
than  any  other  part  of  the  Apocalypse,  because  in  these 
letters  he  is  in  closer  contact  with  reality  than  in  any  other 
part  of  the  book. 

Accordingly,  we  must  accept  the  plain  evidence  of  this 
letter,  and  infer  (as  in  the  Ephesian  letter  already)  that  to 
the  writer  of  the  letter  the  life  of  the  Church  in  Smyrna 
was  not  disconnected  from  the  life  of  the  city ;  and  this 
must  be  regarded  as  a  general  principle  to  be  applied  in 
other  cases.  The  Church  was  to  him  the  heart  and  soul  of 
the  city,  and  its  members  were  the  true  citizens.  Just  as 
the  so-called  Jews  in  Smyrna  were  not  the  true  Jews,  but 
a  mere  synagogue  of  Satan,  so  the  Pagans  were  not  the 
true  citizens,  but  mere  servants  of  the  devil.  The  true 
Jews  and  the  true  citizens  were  the  Christians  alone.  To 
them  belonged  the  heritage  of  the  city's  past  history:  its 
faithfulness,  its  persistence,  its  unconquerable  and  indestruct- 
ible vitality,  all  were  theirs.     To  them  also  belonged  the 


278     XX.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Smyrna 

whole  ancient  heritage  of  the  Jews,  the  promises  and  the 
favour  of  God. 

In  the  letter  to  Smyrna  then  we  see  an  influence  of  which 
no  trace  was  visible  in  the  Ephesian  letter.  The  stock 
topics  of  patriotic  orators,  the  glories  of  the  city,  are  plainly 
observable  in  the  letter ;  and  the  writer  had  certainly  at 
some  time  mixed  in  the  city  life,  and  become  familiar  with 
current  talk  and  the  commonplaces  of  Smyrnaean  municipal 
patriotism.  Patriotism  still  was  almost  entirely  municipal, 
though  the  Roman  Empire  was  gradually  implanting  in  the 
minds  of  ordinary  men  a  wider  ideal,  extending  to  a  race 
and  an  empire,  and  not  confined  to  a  mere  city.  Greece 
had  vainly  tried  to  make  the  Hellenic  idea  strong  in  the 
common  mind  ;  philosophers  had  freed  themselves  from 
the  narrowness  of  municipal  patriotism ;  but  it  was  left  to 
Rome  to  make  the  wider  idea  effective  among  men. 

In  the  Ephesian  letter,  on  the  other  hand,  it  was  the 
eternal  features  and  the  natural  surroundings  of  the  city 
that  the  writer  referred  to.  The  Smyrnaean  letter  is  not 
without  similar  reference.  The  writer  did  not  confine  his 
attention  to  those  ephemeral  characteristics  which  have 
just  been  mentioned,  or  (to  speak  more  accurately)  he  re- 
garded those  characteristics  as  merely  the  effect  produced 
by  eternal  causes.  He  had  thought  himself  into  harmony 
with  the  natural  influences  which  had  made  Smyrna  what 
it  was,  and  which  would  continue  to  mould  its  history  ; 
and  from  this  lofty  standpoint  he  could  look  forward  into 
the  future,  and  foretell  what  must  happen  to  Smyrna  and 
to  the  Church  (which  to  him  was  the  one  reality  in  Smyrna). 
He  foresaw  permanence,  stability,  reality  surpassing  the 
outward  appearance,  life  maintaining  itself  strong  and 
unmoved  amid  trial  and  apparent  death.     In  Ephesus  he 


The  Letter  to  the  Chuixh  in  Smyrna       279 

saw  the  one  great  characteristic,  the  changing,  evanescent, 
uncertain  relations  of  sea  and  land  and  river;  and  inter- 
preted with  prophetic  instinct  the  inevitable  future.  In 
Smyrna  he  saw  nothing  of  that  kind.  The  city  must  live, 
and  the  Church  must  live  in  it.  Sea  and  plain  and  hills 
were  here  unchanging  in  their  combined  effect,  making 
the  seat  of  a  great  city.  The  city  must  endure  much, 
but  only  for  a  definite,  limited  period  ;  as  a  city  it  would 
suffer  from  invaders,  who  would  surely  try  to  capture  it ; 
and  the  Church  not  only  would  suffer  along  with  the  city, 
but  would  also  suffer  from  the  busy  trading  community, 
in  which  the  element  hostile  to  God  would  always  be 
strong. 

And  history  has  justified  the  prophetic  vision  of  the 
writer.  Smyrna,  the  recipient  of  the  most  laudatory  of  ah 
the  Seven  Letters,  is  the  greatest  of  all  the  cities  of  Anatolia. 
At  the  head  of  its  gulf,  which  stretches  far  up  into  the 
land,  it  is  at  present  the  one  important  seaport,  and  will 
remain  always  the  greatest  seaport,  of  the  whole  country. 
But  the  same  situation  which  gives  it  eternal  importance, 
has  caused  it  to  suffer  much  tribulation.  It  has  been  the 
crown  of  victory  for  many  victors.  It  has  tempted  the 
cupidity  of  every  invader,  and  has  endured  the  greed  and 
cruelty  of  many  conquerors ;  but  it  has  arisen,  brilliant 
and  strong,  from  every  disaster.  No  city  of  the  East 
Mediterranean  lands  gives  the  same  impression  of  bright- 
ness and  life,  as  one  looks  at  it  from  the  water,  and  beholds 
it  spread  out  on  the  gently  sloping  ground  between  the 
sea  and  the  hill,  and  clothing  the  sides  of  the  graceful 
hill,  which  was  crowned  with  the  walls  and  towers  of  the 
mediaeval  castle,  until  they  were  pulled  down  a  few  years 
ago.     The  difference  in  the  beauty  of  the  city  caused  thereby 


28o     XX.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Smyrna 

shows  how  much  of  the  total  effect  was  due  to  that  "  crown 
of  Smyrna"  (see  pp.  256-9). 

That  hill  seems  at  the  first  view  to  be  only  a  rounded 
hillock  of  450  feet  in  elevation.  But,  when  you  examine 
it  more  closely,  you  find  that  it  is  not  merely  an  isolated 
conical  hill,  as  it  seems  from  the  sea  to  be.  It  is  really 
only  a  part  of  the  vast  plateau  that  lies  behind  it,  and 
pushes  it  forward,  like  a  fist,  towards  the  sea.  It  is  far 
stronger  than  at  first  it  appeared,  for  it  is  really  a  corner 
of  the  main  mass  of  the  Asiatic  continent,  and  is  supported 
from  behind  by  its  immeasurable  strength.  Strength  sur- 
passing appearance,  brightness,  life :  those  are  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  letter  and  of  the  city. 

In  this  letter  no  one  can  fail  to  recognise  the  tone  of 
affection  and  entire  approval.  Whereas  the  writer  urged 
the  people  of  Ephesus  to  be  as  they  once  were,  he  counsels 
the  Smyrnaeans  to  continue  as  they  are  now.  Ephesus 
has  to  recover  what  it  has  lost,  but  Smyrna  has  lost  nothing. 
The  persecution  and  poverty  which  had  been  the  lot  of 
its  Church  from  the  beginning,  and  which  would  still 
continue  for  a  period,  kept  it  pure.  There  was  nothing 
in  it  to  tempt  the  unworthy  or  the  half-hearted  ;  whereas 
the  dignity  and  high  standing  of  the  Ephesian  Church  had 
inevitably  attracted  many  not  entirely  worthy  members. 
The  writer  looks  confidently  forward  to  the  continuance  of 
the  same  steadfastness  in  Smyrna.  He  does  not  even  hint 
at  the  possibility  of  partial  failure ;  he  does  not  say,  "  If 
thcu  be  faithful,  I  will  give  thee  the  crown " ;  he  merely 
exhorts  them  to  be  faithful  as  they  have  been. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

PERGAMUM:  THE  ROYAL  CITY:    THE  CITY  OF  AUTHORITY.* 

Pergamum  was,  undoubtedly,  an  ancient  place,  whose 
foundation  reaches  back  into  the  beginnings  of  town  life  in 
Asia.  The  situation  is  marked  out  by  nature  for  a  great 
fortified  town,  but  is  too  large  for  a  mere  village.  If  we 
could  fix  the  date  of  its  foundation,  we  should  know  also 
the  period  when  society  has  become  so  far  developed  and 
organised  as  to  seek  for  defence  against  foreign  invasion, 
and  for  offensive  power,  by  combination  on  a  great  scale 
and  the  formation  of  a  large  centre  of  population.  Beyond 
all  other  sites  in  Asia  Minor  it  gives  the  traveller  the  im- 
pression of  a  royal  city,  the  home  of  authority :  the  rocky 
hill  on  which  it  stands  is  so  huge,  and  dominates  the 
broad  plain  of  the  Caicus  so  proudly  and  boldly.  The 
modern  town  is  below  the  hill,  where  the  earliest  village 
was. 

It  is  diflficult  to  analyse  such  impressions,  and  to  define 
the  various  causes  whose  combination  produces  them  ;  but 
the  relation  of  the  vast  hill  to  the  great  plain  is  certainly 
the  chief  cause.  It  would  be  impossible  for  any  stronghold, 
however  large  and  bold,  to  produce  such  an  impression,  if 
it  stood  in  a  small  valley  like  those  of  Ephesus  and  Smyrna, 
or  if  the  valley  and  the  city  were  dominated  by  the  still 
greater  mass  of  the  enclosing  mountains.     The  rock  rules 

over  and  as  it  were  plants  its  foot  upon  a  great  valley ;  and 

(281) 


282        XXI.  Pergamum :  the  Royal  City: 

its  summit  looks  over  the  southern  mountains  which  bound 
the  valley,  until  the  distant  lofty  peaks  south  of  the  Gulf  of 
Smyrna,  and  especially  the  beautiful  twin  peaks  now  called 
the  Two  Brothers,  close  in  the  outlook.  Far  beneath  lies 
the  sea,  quite  fifteen  miles  away,  and  beyond  it  the  foreign 
soil  of  Lesbos :  the  view  of  other  lands,  the  presence  of 
hostile  powers,  the  need  of  constant  care  and  watchfulness, 
all  the  duties  of  kingship  are  forced  on  the  attention  of 
him  who  sits  enthroned  on  that  huge  rock.  There  is  here 
nothing  to  suggest  evanescence,  mutability,  and  uncertainty, 
as  at  Sardis  or  Ephesus  ;  the  inevitable  impression  is  of 
permanence,  strength,  sure  authority  and  great  size.  Some- 
thing of  the  personal  and  subjective  element  must  be  mixed 
up  with  such  impressions  ;  but  in  none  of  the  Seven  Cities 
does  the  impression  seem  more  universal  and  unavoidable 
than  in  Pergamum.     Plate  VI. 

The  history  and  the  coinage  of  Pergamum  can  be  traced 
back  into  the  fifth  century  ;  but  its  superiority  and  headship 
in  Asia  began  in  282,  when  Philetaerus  threw  off  allegiance 
to  King  Lysimachus  and  founded  the  kingdom  of  Pergamum, 
which  was  transmitted  through  a  succession  of  kings,  named 
Eumenes  or  Attalus,  until  133.  During  those  151  years 
Pergamum  was  the  capital  of  a  realm  varying  in  size  from 
the  first  kingdom,  simply  the  Caicus  Valley  (and  hardly  all 
of  it),  to  the  range  of  territories  summed  up  in  the  vague 
expression  "  all  the  land  on  this  side  of  Taurus  ".  For  the 
first  few  years  the  Seleucid  dynasty  supported  Philetaerus 
in  opposition  to  Lysimachus ;  but  soon  the  rivalry  of 
Seleucid  and  Pergamenian  kings  became  the  governing 
political  fact.  The  former  steadily  lost  ground  until  about 
222  B.C.,  when  Antiochus  the  Great  restored  the  power 
of  his  dynasty,  reduced  Attalus  I.  to  the  original  bounds 


The  City  of  Authority  283 

of  Pergamenian  authority,  and  threatened  even  the  exist- 
ence of  his  kingdom.  Roman  aid  expelled  Antiochus  in 
190,  and  enlarged  the  Pergamenian  kingdom  to  its  widest 
extent. 

In  133  Attalus  III.  bequeathed  the  whole  kingdom  to 
the  Romans,  who  formed  it  into  the  Province  of  Asia. 
Pergamum  was  the  official  capital  of  the  Province  for  two 
centuries  and  a  half:  so  that  its  history  as  the  seat  of 
supreme  authority  over  a  large  country  lasts  about  four 
centuries,  and  had  not  yet  come  to  an  end  when  the  Seven 
Letters  were  written.  The  impression  which  the  natural 
features  of  its  position  convey  was  entirely  confirmed  to 
the  writer  of  the  letters  by  its  history.  It  was  to  him  the 
seat  where  the  power  of  this  world,  the  enemy  of  the  Church 
and  its  Author,  exercised  authority.  The  authority  was 
exercised  in  two  ways — the  two  horns  of  the  monster,  as 
we  have  seen  in  chapter  ix. — civil  administration  through 
the  Proconsul,  and  the  State  religion  directed  by  the 
Commune  of  Asia. 

The  first,  and  for  a  considerable  time  the  only.  Provincial 
temple  of  the  Imperial  cult  in  Asia  was  built  at  Pergamum 
in  honour  of  Rome  and  Augustus  (29  B.C.  probably),  A 
second  temple  was  built  there  in  honour  of  Trajan,  and 
a  third  in  honour  of  Severus.  Thus  Pergamum  was  the 
first  city  to  have  the  distinction  of  Temple-Warden  both 
once  and  twice  in  the  State  religion ;  and  even  its  third 
Wardenship  was  also  a  few  years  earlier  than  that  of 
Ephesus.  The  Augustan  Temple  (Fig.  7,  p.  124)  is  often 
represented  on  its  coins  and  on  those  struck  by  the  Com- 
mune. As  the  oldest  temple  of  the  Asian  cult  it  is  far 
more  frequently  mentioned  and  figured  than  any  other 
Asian  temple ;   it   appears   on   coins   of  many   Emperors 


284        XXI.  Pergamum :  the  Royal  City: 

down  to  the  time  of  Trajan,  and  is  generally  represented 
open,  to  show  the  Emperor  crowned  by  the  Province.^ 

The  four  patron  deities  of  Pergamum  are  mentioned  in 
an  oracle,  advising  the  people  to  seek  safety  from  a  pestilence 
through  the  aid  of  Zeus,  Athena,  Dionysos,  and  Asklepios. 
These  represent,  doubtless,  four  different  elements  in  the 
Pergamenian  population.  Zeus  the  Saviour  and  Athena 
the  Victory-Bearing  had  given  the  State  its  glorious  vic- 
tories over  foreign  enemies,  and  especially  the  Gauls ;  and 
the  greatest  efforts  of  Pergamenian  art  were  directed  to 
glorify  them  as  representatives  of  the  Hellenic  spirit  tri- 
umphing over  barbarism.  The  great  Altar  with  its  long 
zone  of  stately  reliefs,  showing  the  gods  of  Hellas  destroying 
the  barbarian  giants,  was  dedicated  to  Zeus  Soter. 

While  the  first  two  of  those  gods  represent  the  Greek 
spirit  and  influence,  the  last  two  were  more  in  accordance 
with  the  Anatolian  spirit,  and  their  worship  bulked  far  more 
largely  in  the  religious  life  of  the  city.  Both  of  them  were 
near  the  animal  type,  and  if  we  could  penetrate  beneath 
the  outward  appearance  imparted  to  them  in  art  by  the 
Greek  anthropomorphic  spirit,  and  reach  down  to  the  actual 
ritual  of  their  Pergamenian  cult,  we  should  indubitably  find 
that  they  were  worshipped  to  a  great  degree  as  animal-gods, 
the  God-Serpent  and  the  God-Bull.^  Where  the  Perga- 
menian kings  were  insisting  on  their  Hellenic  character  or 
blazoning  in  art  their  victory  over  barbaric  enemies,  they 
introduced  Zeus  and  Athena,  but  when  they  were  engaged 
in  the  practical  government  of  their  mixed  people,  mainly 
Anatolian,  though  mixed  with  Greek,  they  made  most  use 
of  Asklepios  and  Dionysos. 

Dionysos  the  Leader  {Kathegemon)  was  the  god  of  the 
royal  family ;  and  the  kings  claimed  to  be  descended  from 


The  City  of  Authority 


285 


him,  and  to  be  in  succession  his  embodiment  and  envisage- 
ment  on  earth,  just  as  the  Seleucid  sovereigns  of  Syria  were 
the  incarnation  of  Apollo.*  This  cult  owed  its  importance 
in  Pergamum  to  the  kings ;  and  its  diffusion  through  Asia 
must  be  attributed  to  them ;  but  the  worship,  having  once 
been  established,  persisted  through  the  Imperial  period,  for 
religious  institutions  were  rarely  lost  so  long  as  paganism 
lasted.  The  worship  was  practised  in  Imperial  times  by  a 
religious  society,  bearing  the  name  Ox-herds  (Boukoloi),  at 
the  head  of  which  was  the  Archi-Boukolos ;  it  was  accom- 


FiQ.  23. — Caracalla  adoring  the  God-Serpent  of  Pergamum. 


panied  by  mysterious  rites,  and  the  mystic  name  of  the  god 
seems  to  have  been  the  Bull,  a^io^  ravpo^. 

The  anthropomorphic  spirit  of  Greek  religion  retained 
very  few  traces  of  the  bull  character  in  the  Hellenic  concep- 
tion of  Dionysos  ;  but  Asklepios  was  more  closely  associated 
with  the  serpent.  The  Hellenic  religious  spirit  represented 
the  god  as  a  dignified  human  figure,  very  similar  in  type  to 
Zeus,  supporting  his  right  hand  on  a  staff  round  which  a 
serpent  is  twined.     His  serpent  nature  clings  to  him,  though 


286        XXI.  Pergamum :  the  Royal  City: 


only  as  an  attribute  and  adjunct,  in  the  fully  Hellenised 
form.  In  the  Anatolian  ritual  the  god  was  the  Asklepian 
serpent,  rather  than  the  human  Asklepios.  Thus  in  Fig.  23 
the  Emperor  Caracalla,  during  his  visit  to  Pergamum,  is 
represented  as  adoring  the  Pergamenian  deity,  a  serpent 
wreathed  round  the  sacred  tree.  Between  the  God-Serpent 
and  the  God-Kmperor  stands  the  little  figure  of  Telesphorus, 
the  Consummator,  a  peculiarly  Pergamenian  conception 
closely  connected  with  Asklepios. 

Asklepios  the  Saviour  was  introduced  from  Epidauros  in 
a  comparatively  recent  period,  perhaps  the  fifth  century. 
He  appears  on  coins  from  the  middle  of  the  second  century 
B.C.  and  became  more  and  more  the  representative  god  of 
Pergamum.  On  alliance  coins  he  regularly  stands  for  his 
city,  as  in  Fig.  10,  p.  174. 

As  Asklepios  was  imported  to  Pergamum  from  Epidaurus 
in  Argolis,  it  may  be  asked  why  his  character  in  ritual  was 
so  strongly  Anatolian  and  so  little  Hellenic.  The  reason  is 
that  he  belonged  to  the  old  Pelasgian  stratum  in  religion, 
which  persisted  most  strcjngly  in  such  remote  and  rural 
parts  of  the  Peloponnesus ;  and  he  had  participated  little 
in  the  progressive  Hellenisation  of  the  old  Greek  gods ; 
now  the  Pelasgian  religion  was  closely  kindred  in  character 
to  the  Anatolian.^ 

On  the  royal  coinage  Athena  and  other  Hellenic  gods 
are  almost  the  only  divine  types  ;  but  on  the  cistophori, 
which  were  intended  to  be  the  common  coinage  in  circula- 
tion through  the  whole  Pergamenian  kingdom  after  200  B.C., 
neither  kings  nor  specifically  Hellenic  gods  appear,  but  only 
symbols  taken  from  the  cults  of  Dionysos  and  Asklepios. 
On  the  obverse  is  the  cista  viystica  of  Dionysos  (Fig.  24) 
within  a  wreath  of  his  sacred  plant  the  ivy :  the  lid  of  the 


The  City  of  Authority 


287 


box  is  pushed  open  by  a  serpent  which  hangs  out  with 
half  its  length.  The  relation  of  the  God-Bull  to  the  God- 
Serpent  in  the  Anatolian  ritual  is  well  known:  "the  bull 
is  father  of  the  serpent,  and  the  serpent  of  the  bull " : 
such  was  a  formula  of  the  Phrygian  Mysteries.*^  On  the 
reverse  are  two  Asklepian  serpents  with  their  lower  parts 
intertwined  and  heads  erect :  between  them  is  a  bowcase 
containing  a  strung  bow. 

The  monogram  of  the  first  three  letters  of  the  name 
Pergamum  is  the  only  indication  on  these  coins  of  Perga- 


FiQ.  24. — Obverse  of  Cistophorus  with  Serpent  and  mystic  box  of  Dionysos. 

menian  origin  and  domination.  It  was  clearly  the  intention 
of  the  kings  in  this  coinage  to  avoid  all  appearance  of 
domination  over  Asia,  and  to  represent  the  unity  of  their 
realm  as  a  voluntary  association  in  the  common  religion 
of  the  two  deities  whose  ritual  is  symbolised  in  barbaric 
Anatolian  forms  on  the  cistophori,  without  the  slightest 
admixture  of  Greek  anthropomorphism,  and  whose  worship 
we  have  already  traced  in  several  cities  of  the  Pergamenian 
realm.  The  cistophori  were  struck  at  first  in  Pergamum, 
but  soon  in  most  of  the  great  cities  of  the  Pergamenian 


288         XXI.  Pergamum:  the  Royal  City: 


realm.  Only  those  struck  in  Pergamum  bore  the  Perga- 
menian  monogram.  The  others  bore  the  name  or  symbols 
of  their  own  place  of  coinage.  These  coins  are  a  true 
historical  monument.  They  express  a  phase  of  administra- 
tion, the  Pergamenian  ideal  of  constructive  statesmanship, 
which  is  attested  by  no  historian  and  hardly  by  any  other 
monument,  pp.  117,  125,  230. 

The  cistophori  show  clearly  the  point  of  view  from  which 
the  symbolism  of  the  Apocalypse  is  to  be  interpreted.  They 
reveal  a  strong  tendency  in  the  Asian  mind  to  express  its 


FiQ.  25. — Reverse  of  Cistophorus,  with  serpents  and  bowcase* 

ideas  and  ideals,  alike  political  and  religious,  through  symbols 
and  types  ;  and  they  prove  that  the  converted  pagan  readers 
for  whom  the  Apocalypse  was  originally  written  were  pre- 
disposed through  their  education  and  the  whole  spirit  of 
contemporary  society  to  regard  visual  forms,  beasts,  human 
fis[ures,  composite  monsters,  objects  of  nature,  or  articles  of 
human  manufacture,  when  mentioned  in  a  work  of  this 
class,  as  symbols  indicative  of  religious  ideas.  This  pre- 
disposition to  look  at  such  things  with  a  view  to  a  meaning 
that  lay  underneath  them  was  not  confined  to  the  strictly 


The  City  of  Authority  289 

Oriental  races  ;  and  the  symbolism  of  the  Apocalypse  ought 
not  to  be  regarded  as  all  necessarily  Jewish  in  origin.  Much 
of  it  is  plainly  Jewish ;  but,  as  has  been  pointed  out  in 
chapters  xi.  and  xii.,  a  strong  alloy  of  Judaism  had  been 
mingled  in  the  composition  of  society  in  the  Asian  cities, 
and  many  Judaic  ideas  must  have  become  familiar  to  the 
ordinary  pagans,  numbers  of  whom  had  been  attracted 
within  the  circle  of  hearers  in  the  synagogues,  while  purely 
pagan  syncretism  of  Jewish  and  pagan  forms  was  familiar 
in  various  kinds  of  ritual  or  magic. 

Except  for  archaeological  and  antiquarian  details,  which 
are  numerous,  little  more  is  known  about  Pergamum.  Its 
importance  and  authority  in  the  Roman  administration  of 
the  Province  Asia  are  abundantly  proved  by  the  evidence 
which  has  been  quoted  above  ;  and  yet  they  are  not  directly 
attested  by  any  ancient  authority  except  the  Apocalypse, 
and  have  to  a  great  extent  escaped  notice.  In  the  latest 
study  of  the  Province  Asia,  a  large  volume  containing  an 
admirable  summary  of  the  chief  results  of  modern  investiga- 
tion, published  in  the  summer  of  1904  by  Monsieur  V. 
Chapot,  Pergamum  is  treated  as  a  place  quite  secondary 
to  Ephesus  and  Smyrna  in  the  Roman  administration 
while  Ephesus  is  regarded  as  in  every  sense  the  Roman 
capital.  Consideration  of  the  fact  that  Pergamum  was 
honoured  with  the  first,  the  second,  and  the  third  Neokor- 
ate  before  any  other  city  of  Asia  shows  beyond  question 
its  official  primacy  in  the  Province.  The  Imperial  religion 
"was  the  keystone  of  the  Imperial  policy";  the  official 
capital  of  the  Province  was  necessarily  the  centre  of  the 
Imperial  ritual ;  and  conversely  the  city  where  the  Imperial 
religion  had  its  centre  must  have  been  officially  regarded 
as  the  capital  of  the  Province.^     In  many  Provinces  there 


290  XXI.  Perga7num :  the  Royal  City 

was  only  one  seat  of  the  Imperial  religion  ;  but  in  Asia  the 
spirit  of  municipal  pride  and  rivalry  was  so  strong  that  it 
would  have  endangered  the  hold  of  the  State  cultus  on  the 
other  great  cities,  if  they  had  been  foiced  to  look  to  any 
one  city  as  the  sole  head  of  the  religion.  Roman  policy 
showed  its  n.->i;al  adaptability  by  turning  municipal  pride 
to  its  purpose  and  making  it  act  in  an  Imperial  channel, 
so  that  the  object  of  competition  among  all  the  great  cities 
was  to  attain  higher  rank  in  the  State  religion. 

Pergamum,  then,  as  being  first  promoted  to  all  three 
stages  in  the  Imperial  worship  must  have  been  the  official 
capital  and  titular  seat  of  Roman  authority ;  but  there  were 
several  capitals  (metropoleis),  three,  and  seven,  and  more 
than  se\en. 

The  name  of  the  city  lives  in  literary  language  through 
the  word  "  parchment "  {Pergamena\  applied  to  an  improved 
preparation  of  hide  adapted  to  purposes  of  writing,  which 
had  been  used  in  Ionia  from  a  very  early  period  (p.  12). 

The  Jewish  community  in  Pergamum  is  mentioned  in 
Josephus,  Ant.  Jud.^  xiv.,  10,  22. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  LETTER  TO  THE  CHURCH  IN  PERGAMUM. 

These  things  saith  he  that  hath  the  sharp-pointed  two-edged  sword. 

I  know  where  thou  dwellest,  where  Satan's  throne  is  ;  and  thou  holdest 
fast  my  name,  and  didst  not  deny  my  faith,  even  m  the  days  of  Antipas 
tny  witness,  my  faithful  one,  who  was  killed  among  you  where  Satan 
dwelleth.  But  I  have  a  few  things  against  thee,  because  thou  hast  there 
some  that  hold  the  teaching  of  Balaam,  who  taught  Balak  to  cast  a  stumbling- 
block  before  the  children  of  Israel,  to  make  them  eat  things  sacrificed  to 
idols  and  commit  fornication.  After  that  fashion  hast  thou  too  some  that 
hold  the  teaching  of  the  Nicolaitans.  Repent  therefore;  or  else  I  come 
upon  thee  quickly,  and  I  will  make  war  against  thein  with  the  sword  of 
my  mouth. 

He  that  hath  an  ear  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  to  the  Churches. 

To  him  that  overcometh  will  I  give  of  the  hidden  manna  ;  and  I  will 
give  him  a  white  stone,  and  upon  the  stone  a  new  name  written,  which  no 
man  knoweth  but  he  that  receiveth  it. 

In  this  letter,  the  intimate  connection  between  the  Church 

and  the  city,  and  the  appropriateness,  in  view  of  the  rank 

and   position  of  the  city,  of  the   opening  address  to  the 

Church  are  even  more  obvious  than  in   the  two  previous 

letters.     "  These  things  saith  he  that  hath  the  sharp  two-edged 

sword.''    The  writer  is  uttering  the  words  of  Him  who  wears 

the  symbol  of  absolute  authority,  and  is  invested  with  the 

power  of  life  and  death.     This  is  the  aspect  in  which  he 

addresses  himself  to  the  official  capital  of  the  Province,  the 

seat  of  authority  in  the  ancient  kingdom  and  in  the  Roman 

administration.     To  no  other  of  the  Seven  Cities  could  this 

exordium  have  been  used  appropriately.     To  Pergamum 

(291) 


292    XXII.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum 

it  is  entirely  suitable.  He  that  hath  the  absolute  and  uni- 
versal authority  speaks  to  the  Church  situated  in  the  city 
where  official  authority  dwells. 

The  distinguishing  characteristic  of  this  letter  is  the  oft- 
recurring  reference  to  the  dignity  of  Pergamum  as  the  seat 
of  Roman  official  authority ;  and  we  have  to  follow  out  this 
reference  in  one  detail  after  another.  The  author  of  the 
letter  speaks  as  invested  with  an  authority  similar  and  yet 
immeasurably  superior  to  that  of  the  Imperial  government. 
The  sword  which  he  bears  is  the  sharp-pointed,  double- 
edged,  cut-and-thrust  sword  used  in  the  Roman  armies,  not 
the  Oriental  scimitar,  or  the  mere  cutting  sword  employed 
by  many  nations,  and  especially  by  the  Greek  soldiers.  The 
name  by  which  it  is  here  called  denoted  a  barbarian  and 
non-Greek  sword  (originally  a  Thracian  term),  and  therefore 
was  suitable  for  the  weapon  borne  by  the  Romans,  who 
were  a  "  barbarian  "  race,  in  contrast  with  the  Greeks.  The 
Romans  did  not  themselves  refuse  the  epithet  *'  barbarian  " : 
e.g..)  the  Roman  adaptations  of  Greek  plays  are  said  by 
the  Roman  poets  even  to  be  "  translations  in  a  barbarian 
tongue".  Hence  St.  Paul  in  Rom.  i.  14,  when  he  speaks 
of  himself  as  indebted  both  to  Greeks  and  to  barbarians, 
means  practically  (though  not  quite  exclusively)  Greeks 
and  Romans, 

In  Roman  estimation  the  sword  was  the  symbol  of  the 
highest  order  of  official  authority,  with  which  the  Proconsul 
of  Asia  was  invested.  The  " right  of  the  svjord" Jus gladii, 
was  roughly  equivalent  to  what  we  call  the  power  of  life 
and  death  (though,  of  course,  the  two  expressions  are  not 
exactly  commensurate);  and  governors  of  Provinces  were 
divided  into  a  higher  and  a  lower  class,  according  as  they 
were  or  were  not  invested  with   this   power.     When  the 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pej^gamum     293 

Divine  Author  addresses  Pergamum  in  this  character,  His 
intention  is  patent,  and  would  be  caught  immediately  by- 
all  Asian  readers  of  the  Apocalypse.  He  wields  that  power 
of  life  and  death,  which  people  imagine  to  be  vested  in  the 
Proconsul  of  the  Province. 

The  writer  knows  well  the  history  of  the  Church  in  Per- 
gamum. Its  fortunes  had  been  mainly  determined  by  the 
rank  and  character  of  the  city  as  the  seat  of  government 
and  authority ;  and  He  who  knows  its  history  expresses  the 
fulness  of  His  knowledge  in  the  striking  words,  "/  know 
where  thou  dwellest,  where  Satan s  throne  is".  In  these 
remarkable  words  is  compressed  a  world  of  meaning. 
"  Satan "  is  a  term  here  employed  in  a  figurative  sense  to 
denote  the  power  or  influence  that  withstands  the  Church 
and  all  who  belong  to  it  The  usage  is  similar  to  that  seen 
in  I  Thessalonians  ii.  18:  it  has  elsewhere^  been  pointed 
out  that  in  that  passage  "Satan"  probably  implies  the 
clever  device  whereby,  without  any  formal  decree  of  ex- 
pulsion or  banishment  (which  would  have  been  difficult 
to  enforce  or  to  make  permanent),  the  Apostle  was  pre- 
vented from  returning  to  Thessalonica.  Similarly,  in  the 
present  case,  "Satan"  is  the  official  authority  and  power 
which  stands  in  opposition  to  the  Church. 

But  the  situation  has  now  developed  greatly.  When  St. 
Paul  was  writing  that  letter  to  the  Thessalonians,  the  civil 
power  that  hindered  him  was  the  authority  of  the  city 
magistrates.  The  Imperial  administration  had  not  at  that 
time  declared  itself  in  opposition  to  the  new  teaching,  and 
was  in  practice  so  conducted  as  to  give  free  scope  to  this  or 
almost  any  other  philosophic  or  moral  or  religious  move- 
ment. But  before  the  Seven  Letters  were  written,  the  Im- 
perial government  had  already  ranged  itself  definitely  in 


294    XXII.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum 

opposition  to  the  Church  of  Christ.  The  procedure  against 
the  Christians  was  fixed  and  stereotyped.  Their  loyalty 
was  now  tested  by  the  one  criterion  recognised  alike  by 
public  opinion  and  by  government  policy,  viz.^  their  willing- 
ness to  perform  the  ritual  of  the  State  religion,  and  make 
offering  to  the  Imperial  God,  the  Divine  Emperor.  Those 
who  refused  to  comply  with  this  requirement  were  forth- 
with condemned  to  death  as  traitors  and  enemies  of  the 
State. 

In  this  State  religion  of  the  Empire,  the  worship  of 
the  Divine  Emperors,  organised  on  a  regular  system  in 
Asia  as  in  all  other  Provinces,  Satan  found  his  home  and 
exercised  his  power  in  opposition  to  God  and  His  Church. 
Pergamum,  as  being  still  the  administrative  capital  of 
the  Province,  was  also  the  chief  seat  of  the  State  religion. 
Here  was  built  the  first  Asian  Temple  of  the  divine  Au- 
gustus, which  for  more  than  forty  years  was  the  one  centre 
of  the  Imperial  religion  for  the  whole  Province,  A  second 
Asian  Temple  had  afterwards  been  built  at  Smyrna,  and  a 
third  at  Ephesus  ;  but  they  were  secondary  to  the  original 
Augustan  Temple  at  Pergamum. 

In  this  Pergamenian  Temple,  then,  Satan  was  enthroned. 
The  authority  over  the  minds  of  its  Asian  subjects,  possessed 
by  the  State,  and  arrayed  against  the  Church,  was  mainly 
concentrated  in  the  Temple.  The  history  of  the  Church  in 
Pergamum  had  been  determined  by  its  close  proximity  to 
the  seat  of  State  opposition,  "  where  Satan's  throne  is". 

Such,  beyond  all  doubt,  was  the  chief  determining  fact  in 
prompting  this  remarkable  expression.  But  it  is  probable 
that  other  thoughts  in  a  secondary  degree  influenced  the 
language  here.  The  breadth  of  meaning  in  these  letters  is  so 
great,  that  one  suggestion  is  rarely  sufficient ;  the  language 


The  Letter  to  the  Chtirch  in  Pergamum     295 

was  prompted  by  the  whole  complex  situation.  In  many 
cases  we  cannot  hope  to  do  more  than  describe  some  one 
side  of  the  situation,  which  happens  to  be  known  to  us  ;  but 
here  we  can  see  that  the  form  of  the  expression  was  clearly 
determined  in  some  degree  by  the  historical  associations 
and  the  natural  features  of  the  city.  Pergamum  had  for 
centuries  been  the  royal  city,  first  of  the  Attalid  kings,  and 
afterwards  of  the  viceroy  or  Proconsul  who  represented  the 
Emperor  in  the  Province.  History  marked  it  out  as  the 
royal  city,  and  not  less  clearly  has  nature  done  so.  No 
city  of  the  whole  of  Asia  Minor — so  far  as  I  have  seen,  and 
there  are  few  of  any  importance  which  I  have  not  seen — 
possesses  the  same  imposing  and  dominating  aspect.  It  is 
the  one  city  of  the  land  which  forced  from  me  the  exclama- 
tion "  A  royal  city ! "  I  came  to  it  after  seeing  the  others, 
and  that  was  the  impression  which  it  produced.  There  is 
something  unique  and  overpowering  in  its  effect,  planted 
as  it  is  on  its  magnificent  hill,  standing  out  boldly  in  the 
level  plain,  and  dominating  the  valley  and  the  mountains 
on  the  south.  Other  cities  of  the  land  have  splendid  hills 
which  made  them  into  powerful  fortresses  in  ancient  time ; 
but  in  them  the  hill  is  as  a  rule  the  acropolis,  and  the  city 
lies  beneath  and  around  or  before  it.  But  here  the  hill  was 
the  city  proper,  and  the  great  buildings,  chiefly  Roman, 
which  lie  below  the  city,  were  external  ornaments,  lending 
additional  beauty  and  stateliness  to  it.     Plate  VII. 

In  this  case,  again,  the  natural  features  of  the  city  give 
a  fuller  meaning  to  the  words  of  the  letter. 

Some  confusion  is  caused  by  the  peculiar  relation  between 
Ephesus  and  Pergamum.  Each  of  the  two  was  in  a  sense 
the  metropolis  of  Asia.  It  is  impossible,  in  the  dearth  of 
information,  to  define  the  limits  of  their  circles  of  influence ; 


296    XXII.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum 

and  ft  was,  in  all  probability,  hardly  possible  to  do  so  very 
exactly  at  the  time  when  the  Seven  Letters  were  written. 
Pergamum  was  the  historical  capital,  originally  the  one 
metropolis  of  Asia,  and  still  the  official  capital.  But  Perga- 
mum was  badly  situated  for  commerce  and  communication ; 
it  did  not  lie  on  any  of  the  great  natural  lines  of  trade 
between  Rome  and  the  East  (though  it  was  situated  on  the 
Imperial  Post-road  to  the  East,  in  the  form  in  which  that 
route  was  organised  by  Augustus  and  lasted  throughout  the 
first  century)  ;  and  therefore  it  could  not  permanently  main- 
tain its  premier  rank  in  the  Province.  The  sea-ends  of  the 
two  great  roads  across  Asia  Minor  were  at  Ephesus  and 
Smyrna ;  one  or  other  of  those  two  cities  must  inevitably 
become  the  capital  of  the  Roman  Province ;  and  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  time  were  more  in  favour  of  Ephesus. 
Smyrna,  indeed,  offered  the  better  harbour,  more  accessible 
for  ships,  at  the  head  of  a  gulf  extending  far  up  into  the 
land,  bringing  sea-borne  trade  nearer  the  heart  of  the 
country  ;  it  had  permanent  vitality  as  the  chief  city  of 
Asia  ;  and  the  future  was  with  it  But  Ephesus  com- 
manded the  most  important  land  route ;  and  this  gave  it 
a  temporary  advantage,  though  the  changing  nature  of  its 
situation  denied  it  permanent  possession  of  the  honour. 

The  Christian  Church  and  its  leaders  had  from  the  first 
seized  on  Ephesus  as  the  centre  of  the  Asian  congregations, 
whether  through  a  certain  unerring  instinct  for  the  true 
value  of  natural  facts,  or  because  they  were  driven  on  in 
that  direction  by  circumstances — but  are  not  these  merely 
two  different  expressions  and  aspects  of  one  fact  ?  Perga- 
mum, however,  and  even  Smyrna,  had  also  a  certain  claim 
to  the  primacy  of  Asia  ;  and  it  is  interesting  to  observe 
how  all  those  varied  claims  and  characteristics  are  mirrored 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergarmmt     297 

and  expressed  in  these  letters.  To  the  superficial  eye  Per- 
gamum  was,  apparently,  even  y&t  the  capital ;  but  already 
in  the  time  of  St.  Paul,  A.D.  56,  the  Ephesians  had  claimed 
primacy  in  Asia  for  their  goddess  (Acts  xix.  27),  and  at 
a  later  period  the  Imperial  policy  was  induced  to  grant 
official  Roman  recognition  and  to  make  the  worship  of 
the  goddess  part  of  the  State  religion  of  the  Province. 
Considering  the  close  connection  in  ancient  times  between 
religion,  political  organisation,  and  the  sentiment  of  patriot- 
ism, we  must  conclude  that  this  wider  acceptance  of 
Ephesian  religion  over  the  whole  of  Asia,  beginning  from 
non-official  action,  and  finally  made  official  and  Imperial, 
marked  and  implied  the  rise  of  Ephesus  to  the  primacy  of 
the  Province ;  but,  at  the  time  when  the  Seven  Letters 
were  written,  the  popular  recognition  of  the  goddess  in  the 
Asian  cities  had  not  been  confirmed  by  Imperial  act. 

As  being  close  to  the  centre  of  the  enemy,  Pergamum 
had  been  most  exposed  to  danger  from  State  persecution. 
Here,  for  the  first  time  in  the  Seven  Letters,  this  topic 
comes  up.  The  suffering  which  had  fallen  to  the  lot  of 
Smyrna  proceeded  chiefly  from  fellow-citizens,  and,  above 
all,  from  the  Jews  ;  but  the  persecution  that  fell  to  the 
lot  of  Pergamum  is  clearly  distinguished  from  that  kind 
of  suffering.  In  Pergamum  it  took  the  form  of  suffering 
for  the  Name,  when  Christians  were  tried  in  the  proconsular 
court,  and  confronted  with  the  alternative  of  conforming  to 
the  State  religion  or  receiving  immediate  sentence  of  death. 
Naturally,  that  kind  of  persecution  originated  from  Perga- 
mum, and  had  there  its  centre ;  but  many  martyrs  were 
tried  and  condemned  there  who  were  not  Pergamenians. 
Prisoners  were  carried  from  all  parts  of  the  Province  to 
Pergamum  for  trial  and  sentence  before  the  authority  who 


298    XXII.  The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum 

possessed  the  right  of  the  sword,  jus  gladii,  the  power  of 
life  and  death,  viz.,  the  Roman  Proconsul  of  Asia. 

Two  errors  must  here  be  guarded  against.  "  Antipas,  my 
witness,  who  was  killed  among  you,"  is  the  only  sufferer 
mentioned.  But  it  would  be  utterly  erroneous  to  infer  (as 
some  have  done)  that  Antipas  had  been  the  only  Christian 
executed  as  yet  in  Pergamum  or  in  the  Province.  His 
name  is  mentioned  and  preserved  only  as  the  first  in  the 
already  long  series  :  the  subsequent  chapters  of  the  Revela- 
tion, which  tell  of  the  woman  drunk  with  the  blood  of  the 
saints,  show  what  were  the  real  facts.  That  one  name 
should  stand  as  representative  of  the  whole  list  is  entirely 
in  the  style  of  the  Apocalypse. 

In  the  second  place,  it  would  be  equally  erroneous  to 
argue  that  persecution  was  still  only  partial  and  local,  not 
universal,  and  that  only  members  of  the  Church  of  Perga- 
mum had  as  yet  suffered  death.  It  is  not  even  certain  that 
Antipas  was  a  member  of  that  congregation  :  the  words 
are  not  inconsistent  with  the  possibility  that  Antipas  was 
brought  up  for  trial  from  some  other  city,  and  "  killed  among 
the  Pergamenians  ".  A  wide-spread  persecution  had  already 
occurred,  and  the  processes  of  law  had  been  fully  developed 
in  it.  The  Apocalypse  places  us  in  view  of  a  procedure  de- 
veloped far  beyond  that  which  Tacitus  describes  as  ruling 
in  the  reign  of  Nero ;  and  such  a  formed  and  stereotyped 
procedure  was  elaborated  only  through  the  practice  and  pre- 
cedents established  during  later  persecution. 

The  honourable  history  and  the  steadfast  loyalty  of  the 
Pergamenian  Church,  however,  had  been  tarnished  by  the 
error  of  a  minority  of  the  congregation,  which  had  been 
convinced  by  the  teaching  of  the  Nicolaitans.  This  school 
of  thought  and  conduct  played  an  important  part  in  the 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum     299 

Church  of  the  first  century.  Ephesus  had  tried  and  rejected 
it;  the  Smyrnaean  congregation,  despised  and  ill-treated  by 
their  fellow-citizens,  had  apparently  not  been  much  affected 
by  it ;  in  Pergamum  a  minority  of  the  Church  had  adopted 
its  principles  ;  in  Thyatira  the  majority  were  attracted  by 
it,  and  it  there  found  its  chief  seat,  so  far  as  Asia  was 
concerned.  Probably  the  controversy  with  regard  to  the 
Nicolaitan  views  was  fought  out  and  determined  in  Asia 
more  decisively  than  in  any  other  Province,  though  the 
same  questions  must  have  presented  themselves  and  de- 
manded an  answer  in  every  Province  and  city  where  the 
Graeco-Roman  civilisation  was  established.  The  character 
of  this  movement,  obscure  and  almost  unknown  to  us, 
because  the  questions  which  it  raised  were  determined  at 
so  early  a  date,  will  be  most  conveniently  treated  under 
Thyatira  ;  but  it  is  necessary  here  to  point  out  that  it  was 
evidently  an  attempt  to  effect  a  reasonable  compromise 
with  the  established  usages  of  Graeco-Roman  society  and 
to  retain  as  many  as  possible  of  those  usages  in  the  Chris- 
tian system  of  life.  It  affected  most  of  all  the  cultured 
and  well-to-do  classes  in  the  Church,  those  who  had  most 
temptation  to  retain  all  that  they  could  of  the  established 
social  order  and  customs  of  the  Graeco-Roman  world,  and 
who  by  their  more  elaborate  education  had  been  trained 
to  take  a  somewhat  artificial  view  of  life  and  to  reconcile 
contradictory  principles  in  practical  conduct  through  subtle 
philosophical  reasoning. 

The  historian  who  looks  back  over  the  past  will  find  it 
impossible  to  condemn  the  Nicolaitan  principles  in  so 
strong  and  even  bigoted  fashion  as  St.  John  condemned 
them.  But  the  Apostle,  while  writing  the  Seven  Letters, 
was  not  concerned  to  investigate  all  sides  of  the  case,  and 


300    XXII.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum 

to  estimate  with  careful  precision  exactly  how  much  could 
be  reasonably  said  on  behalf  of  the  Nicolaitans.  He  saw 
that  they  had  gone  wrong  on  the  essential  and  critical 
alternative ;  and  he  cared  for  nothing  more.  To  him,  in 
the  absorbing  interest  of  practical  life,  no  nice  weighing  of 
comparative  right  was  possible ;  he  divided  all  Christians 
into  two  categories,  those  who  were  right  and  those  who 
were  wrong.  Those  who  were  wrong  he  hated  with  his 
whole  heart  and  soul ;  and  he  almost  loved  the  Ephesians, 
as  we  have  seen,  because  they  also  hated  the  Nicolaitans. 
The  Nicolaitans  were  to  him  almost  worse  than  the  open 
and  declared  enemies  of  Christ  on  the  pagan  side ;  and  he 
would  probably  have  entirely  denied  them  the  name  of 
Christians. 

But  the  historian  must  regard  the  Nicolaitans  with  in- 
tense interest,  and  must  regret  deeply  that  we  know  so 
little  about  them,  and  that  only  from  their  enemies.  And 
yet  at  the  same  time  he  must  feel  that  nothing  could  have 
saved  the  infant  Church  from  melting  away  into  one  of 
those  vague  and  ineffective  schools  of  philosophic  ethics 
except  the  stern  and  strict  rule  that  is  laid  down  here  by 
St.  John.  An  easy-going  Christianity  could  never  have 
survived ;  it  could  not  have  conquered  and  trained  the 
world ;  only  the  most  convinced,  resolute,  almost  bigoted 
adherence  to  the  most  uncompromising  interpretation  of  its 
own  principles  could  have  given  the  Christians  the  courage 
and  self-reliance  that  were  needed.  For  them  to  hesitate 
or  to  doubt  was  to  be  lost. 

Especially,  it  is  highly  probable  that  the  Nicolaitans 
either  already  had,  or  soon  would  have,  reached  the  con- 
clusion that  they  might  justifiably  comply  with  the  current 
test  of  loyalty,  and  burn  a  little  incense  in  honour  of  the 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum     301 

Emperor.  The  Church  was  not  disloyal ;  even  its  most 
fanatical  defenders  claimed  to  be  loyal ;  then  why  should 
its  members  make  any  difficulty  about  proving  their  loy- 
alty by  burning  a  few  grains  of  incense  ?  A  little  incense 
was  nothing.  An  excellent  and  convincing  argument  can 
readily  be  worked  out ;  and  then — the  whole  ritual  of  the 
State  religion  would  have  followed  as  a  matter  of  course ; 
Christ  and  Augustus  would  have  been  enthroned  side  by 
side  as  they  were  in  the  compromise  attempted  by  the 
Emperor  Alexander  Severus  more  than  a  century  later ; 
and  everything  that  was  vital  in  Christianity  would  have 
been  lost.  St.  John,  like  St.  Paul  in  i  Corinthians,  saw 
the  real  issue  that  lay  before  the  Church — either  it  must 
conquer  and  destroy  the  Imperial  idolatry,  or  it  must  com- 
promise and  in  so  doing  be  itself  destroyed.  Both  St. 
Paul  and  St.  John  answered  with  the  most  hearty,  un- 
wavering, uncompromising  decisiveness.  Not  the  faintest 
shadow  of  acquiescence  in  idolatry  must  be  permitted  to 
the  Christian.  On  this  the  Nicolaitans,  with  all  good  in- 
tention, went  wrong ;  and  to  St.  John  the  error  was  unpar- 
donable. He  compares  the  Nicolaitans  to  the  Israelites 
who  were  led  astray  into  pleasure  and  vice  by  the  subtle 
plan  of  Balaam.  No  words  of  condemnation  are  too  strong 
for  him  to  use.  Their  teaching  was  earthly,  sensual,  devil- 
ish. In  their  philosophical  refinements  of  argumentation 
he  saw  only  "  the  deep  things  of  Satan  ". 

It  is  clear  also  that  the  Nicolaitans  rather  pitied  and 
contemned  the  humbler  intelligence  and  humbler  position 
of  the  opposite  section  in  the  Church  ;  and  hence  we  shall 
find  that  both  in  the  Thyatiran  and  in  the  Pergamenian 
letter  St.  John  exalts  the  dignity,  authority  and  power 
that  shall  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  victorious  Christian.     Christ 


302    XXII.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum 

can  and  will  give  His  ^true  followers  far  more  than  the 
Nicolaitans  promise.  No  power  or  rank  in  the  world 
equals  the  lofty  position  that  Christ  will  bestow  ;  the  Imperial 
dignity  and  the  name  of  Augustus  cannot  be  compared 
with  the  dignity  and  name  of  the  glorified  Christ  which  He 
will  give  to  His  own. 

Further  light  is,  as  usual,  thrown  on  the  opening  address 
of  the  letter  by  the  promise  at  the  end :  "  To  him  that 
overcometh  will  I  give  of  the  hidden  manna,  and  I  will  give, 
him  a  white  stone,  and  upon  the  stone  a  new  name  written^ 
which  no  one  knoweth  but  he  that  receiveth  it ". 

The  "  white  stone  "  was,  doubtless,  a  tessera,  and  ought, 
strictly  speaking,  to  be  called  by  that  name,  but  the  word 
is  not  English  and  therefore  is  unsuitable.  There  is  no 
English  word  which  gives  an  adequate  rendering,  for  the 
thing  is  not  used  among  us,  and  therefore  we  have  no 
name  for  it.  It  was  a  little  cube  or  rectangular  block  of 
stone,  ivory,  or  other  substance,  with  words  or  symbols 
engraved  on  one  or  more  faces.  Such  tesserse  were  used 
for  a  great  variety  of  purposes.  Here  it  is  a  sort  of  coupon 
or  ticket  bearing  the  name,  but  it  is  not  to  be  given  up : 
it  is  to  remain  secret,  not  to  be  shown  to  others,  but  to 
be  kept  as  the  private  possession  of  the  owner. 

An  explanation  of  the  white  pebble  or  tessera  with  the 
New  Name  has  been  sought  in  many  different  objects 
used  in  ancient  times,  or  ideas  current  among  ancient 
peoples,  Greek,  Roman,  and  Jewish.  Some  scholars  quote 
the  analogy  of  the  tessera  given  to  proved  and  successful 
gladiators  inscribed  with  the  letters  SP,  which  they  regard 
as  a  new  title  spectatus,  i.e.,  tried  and  proved ;  but  this  ana- 
logy, though  tempting  in  some  ways,  will  not  bear  closer 
examination.    The  letters  SP  on  the  gladiatorial  tessera  are 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum     303 

considered  by  Mommsen  to  stand,  not  for  spectatus^  but  for 
spectavit.  Various  theories  are  proposed  about  the  mean- 
ing ;  but  no  theory  makes  out  that  a  new  name  was  given 
to  the  proved  gladiator  with  the  tessera :  he  was  simply 
allowed  to  retire  into  private  life  after  a  proved  and  success- 
ful career,  instead  of  being  compelled  to  risk  his  reputation 
and  life  when  his  powers  were  failing.  The  analogy  fails 
in  the  most  essential  points. 

Moreover,  it  is  necessary  that  any  suggestion  as  to  the 
origin  of  the  sayings  in  the  Seven  Letters  should  be  taken 
from  a  phase  of  life  familiar  to  the  society  to  which  they 
were  addressed.  But  gladiatorial  exhibitions  and  profes- 
sional gladiators  (to  whom  alone  the  tesserae  were  given) 
were  an  exotic  in  the  Eastern  Provinces  :  they  were  not 
much  to  the  taste  of  the  Hellenes,  but  were  an  importation 
from  Rome.  The  influence  of  Roman  fashions  over  the 
Provinces  was,  indeed,  strong  enough  to  make  gladiatorial 
exhibitions  a  feature  in  many  of  the  greater  festivals  in 
Asia  ;  ^  but  it  does  not  appear  that  they  ever  became  really 
popular  there,  or  that  gladiatorial  metaphors  and  allusions 
to  the  life  of  professional  gladiators  ever  passed  into  current 
speech.  None  of  the  gladiatorial  tesserae  which  are  known 
as  yet  have  been  found  in  the  Province  Asia.  There  is 
therefore  no  reason  to  think  that  the  Asian  readers  would 
have  caught  the  allusion  to  such  tesserae  even  if  St.  John 
had  intended  it  (which  is  altogether  unlikely). 

Still  more  unsatisfactory  are  the  comparisons  suggested 
between  this  white  stone  and  the  voting  ballot  used  by  jurors 
or  political  voters,  the  tessera  that  served  as  an  entrance- 
ticket  to  distributions,  banquets,  or  other  public  occasions, 
and  so  on  through  all  the  various  purposes  served  by  such 
tesserae  or  stones.     All  are  unsatisfactory  and  elusive  ;  they 


304    XXII.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum 

do  not  make  the  reader  feel  that  he  has  gained  a  clear  and 
definite  impression  of  the  white  pebble. 

Yet,  while  none  of  these  analogies  is  complete  or  satis- 
factory in  itself,  perhaps  none  is  entirely  wrong.  The 
truth  is  that  the  white  pebble  with  the  New  Name  was 
not  an  exact  reproduction  of  any  custom  or  thing  in  the 
social  usage  of  the  time.  It  was  a  new  conception,  de- 
vised for  this  new  purpose  ;  but  it  was  only  a  working  up 
into  a  new  form  of  familiar  things  and  customs,  and  it 
was  therefore  completely  intelligible  to  every  reader  in 
the  Asian  Churches.  It  had  analogies  with  many  things, 
though  it  was  not  an  exact  reproduction  of  any  of  them. 
Probably  the  fact  is  that  the  pebble  is  simply  an  instrument 
to  bear  the  Name,  and  all  the  stress  of  the  passage  is  laid 
on  the  Name  which  is  thus  communicated.  The  reason 
why  the  pebble  is  mentioned  lies  in  a  different  direction 
from  any  of  the  suggestions  quoted  above. 

Two  facts,  however,  are  to  be  noticed  with  regard  to 
this  "white  pebble".  In  the  first  place,  it  is  lasting  and 
imperishable.  Hence,  such  a  translation  as  "  ticket "  or 
**  coupon  "  would — apart  from  the  modem  associations — be 
unsuitable.  A  "  ticket "  is  for  a  temporary  purpose ;  this 
pebble  is  eternal.  According  to  the  ancient  view  a  close 
relation  existed  between  permanent  validity  and  record 
on  some  lasting  imperishable  material.  The  mere  ex- 
pression in  writing  of  any  idea  or  word  or  right  or  title 
gave  it  a  new  kind  of  existence  and  an  added  effective- 
ness, placed  it  in  short  on  a  higher  plane  in  the  universe. 
But  this  new  existence  was,  of  course,  dependent  on  the 
permanence  of  the  writing,  i.e.,  on  the  lasting  nature  of 
the  material.  Horace  plays  with  the  popular  idea,  when 
he  declares  that  his   lyric  poetry  is  a   inonumentum  aere 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergmmmt     305 

perennius :  laws,  the  permanent  foundation  of  peace  and 
order  in  a  city,  were  written  on  bronze ;  but  poetry  will 
outlast  even  bronze.  The  New  Name,  then,  must  be 
written,  not  simply  left  as  a  sound  in  the  air ;  and  it  must 
be  written,  not  on  the  parchment  made  in  the  city  (p.  290), 
but  on  an  imperishable  material  like  this  pebble. 

In  the  second  place  the  colour  is  important.  It  was 
white,  the  fortunate  colour.  Suitability  of  the  material  to 
the  subject  in  writing  seems  to  have  been  considered  to 
some  degree  in  ancient  time.  Dr.  Wunsch,  one  of  the  lead- 
ing authorities,  lays  great  stress  on  the  fact  that  curses 
and  imprecations  were  usually  written  on  lead,  as  proving 
that  lead  was  the  deadly  and  ill-omened  metal  in  Greece ; 
and  since  many  imprecations  were  found  at  Tel-Sanda- 
hannah  in  the  south-west  of  Palestine  engraved  on  lime- 
stone tablets,^  there  is  some  temptation  to  regard  limestone 
as  selected  for  a  similar  reason,  and  to  contrast  its  dark, 
ill-omened  hue  with  the  "  white  stone "  engraved  with  the 
New  Name  in  this  case.  Some  doubt  however  is  cast  on 
this  theory  of  material  by  the  fact  that  a  private  letter,  of 
a  kind  which  would  not  be  written  on  a  material  recognised 
as  deadly  and  ill-omened,  has  recently  been  found  incised 
on  a  leaden  tablet :  it  is  published  as  the  oldest  Greek  letter 
in  the  Austrian  Jahresliefte,  1904,  p.  94.     See  p.  386. 

Equally  difficult  is  the  allusion  to  the  New  Name.  We 
take  it  as  clear  and  certain  that  the  "new  name"  is  the 
name  which  shall  be  given  to  the  conquering  Christian  ;  and 
the  words  are  connected  with  the  already  established  custom 
of  taking  a  new  name  at  baptism. 

The  name  acquired  in  popular  belief  a  close  connexion 
with  the  personality,  both  of  a  human  being  and  of  a  god. 
The  true  name  of  a  god  was  kept  secret  in  certain  kinds 


3o6    XXII.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum 

of  ancient  religion,  lest  the  foreigner  and  the  enemy,  by 
knowing  the  name,  should  be  able  to  gain  an  influence 
over  the  god.  The  name  guaranteed,  and  even  gave,  exist- 
ence, reality,  life:  a  new  name  implied  the  entrance  on  a 
new  life. 

This  old  superstition  takes  a  peculiar  form  among  the 
modern  Jews  of  Palestine.  It  is  their  custom  to  change  a 
person's  name  in  the  case  of  a  dangerous  illness,  as  is  men- 
tioned by  Mr.  Macalister  in  the  Quarterly  Statement  of  the 
Palestine  Exploration  Fund,  April,  1904,  p.  153.  The  new 
name,  which  is  retained  ever  afterwards,  if  the  patient  sur- 
vives, frequently  has  reference  to  life,  or  is  that  of  some  Old 
Testament  saint  whose  life  was  specially  long. 

Accordingly  the  New  Name  that  is  given  to  the  victorious 
Christian  marls:s  his  entrance  on  a  new  and  higher  stage  of 
existence ;  he  has  become  a  new  person.  Yet  this  alone 
would  make  an  inadequate  and  unsatisfying  explanation. 
We  miss  the  element  of  authority  and  power,  which  is  im- 
peratively demanded  to  suit  the  case  of  Pergamum.  To 
furnish  this  element  the  New  Name  must  be  the  name  of 
God.  Here,  again,  we  find  ourselves  brought  close  to  the 
sphere  of  popular  religion,  superstition  and  magic.  Know- 
ledge of  the  compelling  names  of  God,  the  names  of  God 
which  influence  nature  and  the  mysterious  forces  of  the 
universe,  was  one  of  the  chief  sources  of  the  power  which 
both  the  Mysteries  and  the  magic  ritual  claimed  to  give 
their  votaries.  The  person  that  had  been  initiated  into  the 
Mysteries  learned  not  merely  the  landmarks  to  guide  him 
along  the  road  to  the  home  of  the  Blessed — the  white  poplar 
and  the  other  signs  by  the  way — he  learned  also  the  names 
of  God  which  would  open  the  gates  and  bars  before  him, 
and  frighten  away  hostile  spirits  or  transform  them  into 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum     307 

friends.  Mr.  Anderson  Scott  gives  an  excellent  note  on 
this  passage,  which  may  be  supplemented  from  Dieterich's 
Mithrasliturgie,  pp.  32-39.  He  who  knows  the  right  name 
of  a  demon  or  divine  being  can  become  lord  over  all  the 
power  that  the  demonic  being  possesses,  just  as  he  who 
knows  the  name  of  a  man  was  considered  to  possess  some 
power  over  the  man,  because  the  name  partakes  of  reality 
and  not  merely  marks  a  man's  personality,  but  is  almost 
identified  with  it. 

Probably  no  incompatibility  between  these  two  aspects 
of  the  New  Name,  as  the  name  of  God  and  as  the  name 
of  the  individual  Christian,  was  felt  by  the  ancient  readers 
of  this  letter.  The  name  that  was  written  on  the  white 
stone  was  at  once  the  name  of  the  victorious  Christian  and 
the  name  of  God.  These  two  points  of  view  approximated 
towards  one  another,  and  passed  into  one  another.  Personal 
names  frequently  were  derived  from,  or  even  identical  with,  a 
Divine  name.  The  ordinary  thought  of  primitive  Greek  and 
of  Anatolian  religion — that  the  heroised  dead  had  merely 
returned  to  the  Divine  Mother  who  bore  them,  and  become 
once  more  identified  with  and  merged  in  the  divine  nature — 
also  helped  to  obliterate  the  difference  which  we  in  modern 
times  feel  between  the  two  points  of  view.  Here  and  in 
the  Philadelphian  letter  the  name  of  God  is  also  the  name 
of  the  victorious  Christian,  written  on  him  in  the  latter  case, 
given  him  on  a  white  tessera  in  the  Pergamenian  letter. 
Pergamum  and  Philadelphia  are  the  two  Churches  which 
are  praised  because  they  "held  fast  my  name,"  and  "did 
not  deny  it " ;  and  they  are  rewarded  with  the  New  Name, 
at  once  the  Name  of  God  and  their  own,  an  eternal  posses- 
sion, known  to  the  bearers  only,  the  symbol  and  instrument 
of  wider  power ;  they  shall  not  merely  be  "  Christians,"  the 


3o8    XXII.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum 

people  of  Christ ;  they  shall  be  the  people  of  His  new 
personality  as  He  is  hereafter  revealed  in  glory,  bearing 
that  New  Name  of  His  glorious  revelation. 

The  allusion  to  the  "hidden  manna"  is  one  of  the  few 
touches  in  the  Seven  Letters  derived  purely  and  exclusively 
from  the  realm  of  Jewish  belief  and  superstition.  It  is  not 
even  taken  from  the  Old  Testament ;  but  is  a  witness  that 
some  current  Jewish  superstitions  acquired  a  footing  in  the 
early  Christian  Church.  According  to  a  Jewish  tale  the 
manna  laid  up  "  before  the  Testimony "  in  the  Ark  was 
hidden  in  a  cave  of  Mount  Sinai,  and  would  be  revealed 
when  Messiah  came.  That  superstition  is  here  used  as  a 
symbol  to  indicate  the  heavenly  food  that  should  impart 
strength  to  the  Christian.  It  is,  however,  quite  probable 
that  there  is  some  special  suitability  in  this  symbol,  due 
to  popular,  mixed  Jewish  and  pagan,  belief  current  in  Asia, 
which  we  have  failed  to  catch. 

As  to  the  spirit  in  which  popular  beliefs  are  here  used, 
Mr.  Anderson  Scott  in  the  note  just  quoted  has  said  all 
that  there  is  to  say.  The  same  form  of  expression,  which 
is  so  frequent  elsewhere  in  the  Seven  Letters,  occurs  here. 
A  contrast  is  intended  between  the  ordinary  popular  custom 
and  the  better  form  in  which  that  custom  is  offered  to  the 
true  Christian :  to  the  victorious  Christian  shall  be  given 
the  possession  of  a  far  more  powerful  and  efficacious  name 
than  any  which  he  could  learn  about  in  the  various  kinds 
of  popular  ritual,  a  name  which  will  mark  the  transforma- 
tion of  his  whole  nature  and  his  recreation  in  a  new 
character. 

The  promises  and  the  principles  of  Christianity  had  to 
be  made  intelligible  to  minds  habituated  to  think  in  the 
customary  forms  of  ancient  popular  thought ;  and  they  are 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum     309 

therefore  expressed  in  the  Apocalypse  according  to  the 
popular  forms,  but  these  forms  must  be  understood  as 
merely  figurative,  as  mere  attempts,  necessarily  imperfect, 
to  reach  and  teach  the  popular  mind.  The  words  and 
thoughts  in  the  Seven  Letters,  when  taken  singly  and 
separately,  are  to  a  remarkable  extent  such  as  a  pagan 
mystic  of  the  first  or  second  century  might  have  used  ;  and 
we  shall  probably  find  that  some  champion  will  hereafter 
appear  to  prove  that  the  Seven  Letters  took  their  origin 
from  no  mere  Christian,  but  from  a  pagan  mystic  circle 
tinged  with  semi-Gnostic  developments  of  Christianity. 
The  same  view  has  already  been  advocated  by  influential 
scholars  with  regard  to  the  epitaph  of  the  Phrygian  bishop, 
Avircius  Marcellus — with  equal  unreason  in  both  cases  (un- 
less perhaps  the  Seven  Letters  present  a  more  startlingly 
pagan  resemblance  in  some  parts  than  the  bishop's  epi- 
taph). Those  who  advocate  such  theories  fail  to  catch  the 
spirit  which  lies  in  the  Christian  document  as  a  whole. 
The  whole,  in  literature,  is  far  more  than  the  sum  of  the 
separate  parts  :  there  is  the  soul,  the  life,  the  spirit  that 
gives  vitality  and  unity  to  the  parts.  To  miss  that  char- 
acter in  such  a  document  is  to  miss  what  makes  it  Christian. 
To  miss  that,  is  to  miss  everything.  All  those  mystic  rites 
and  popular  cults  were  far  from  being  mere  imposture  or 
delusion  ;  they  had  many  elements  of  truth  and  beauty ; 
they  were  all  trying  to  reach  the  same  result  as  Christi- 
anity, to  satisfy  the  wants  of  the  popular  mind,  to  guide 
it  right  in  its  groping  after  God.  They  all  used  many  of 
the  same  facts  and  rites,  insisted  ou  many  similar  customs 
and  methods,  employed  often  the  same  words  and  sym- 
bols as  Christianity  used  ;  and  yet  the  result  is  so  utterly 
different  in  character  and  spirit  that  one  would  have  been 


3  lo    XXII.   The  Letter  to  the  Chwch  in  Pergamum 

inclined  to  say  that  not  even  a  single  paragraph  or  sentence 
of  any  Christian  document  could  have  been  mistaken  for  a 
product  of  one  of  those  Mystic  circles  of  devotees,  had  it 
not  been  for  the  treatment  that  the  testament  of  Avircius 
Marcellus  has  recently  received  from  some  high  authorities 
— discussed  point  by  point,  detail  after  detail,  without  re- 
gard to  the  spirit  of  the  whole,  and  thus  proved  to  be  non- 
Christian  by  ignoring  all  that  is  Christian  in  it. 

There  is,  however,  a  certain  obscurity,  which  must  evi- 
dently be  intentional,  in  this  passage ;  more  is  meant  than 
lies  on  the  surface.  Now  the  earlier  part  of  the  letter  is 
characterised  by  an  unmistakable  and  yet  carefully  veiled 
opposition  to  the  State  religion  and  to  the  government 
which  had  provoked  that  opposition  ;  and  this  quality  in 
the  letter  guides  us  to  the  proper  understanding  of  the 
conclusion,  which  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  passages 
in  the  Seven  Letters.  The  readers  of  this  letter,  who 
possessed  the  key  to  its  comprehension,  hidden  from  the 
common  world,  could  not  fail  to  be  struck  with  the  analogy 
between  this  New  Name  and  the  Imperial  title  Augustus. 
That  also  had  been  a  new  name,  deliberately  devised  by 
the  Senate  to  designate  the  founder,  and  to  mark  the 
foundation  of  the  new  Empire :  it  was  an  old  sacred  word, 
used  previously  only  in  the  language  of  the  priests,  and 
never  applied  to  any  human  being :  hence  Ovid  says : 
"  Sancta  vocant  augusta  palres  "  {Fast.,  i.,  609).  That  old 
word  was  appropriated  in  27  B.C.  to  the  man  who  had  been 
the  saviour  of  Rome,  and  whom  already  the  popular  belief 
had  begun  to  regard  as  an  incarnation  of  the  divine  nature 
in  human  form,  sent  down  to  earth  to  end  the  period  of 
war  and  introduce  the  age  of  peace.  This  sacred,  divine 
name  marked  out  the  man  to  whom  it  was  applied  as  one 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Perganium     311 

apart  from  the  world,  standing  on  a  higher  level,  possessor 
of  superhuman  power  in  virtue  of  this  new  name  and  trans- 
mitting that  power  through  the  name  to  his  descendants. 

The  analogy  was  striking ;  and  the  points  of  difference 
were  only  to  the  advantage  of  the  Christian.  His  new  name 
was  secret,  but  all  the  more  efficacious  on  that  account. 
The  readers  for  whom  this  letter  was  written — the  Chris- 
tians of  Pergamum,  of  all  Asia,  of  the  whole  world — would 
catch  with  certainty  the  hidden  meaning.  All  those 
Christians,  when  they  were  victorious,  were  to  be  placed  in 
the-  same  position  as,  or  rather  higher  than,  Augustus, 
having  a  New  Name,  the  Name  of  God,  their  own  secret 
possession,  which  no  man  would  know  and  therefore  no  man 
could  tamper  with  by  acquiring  control  through  knowledge. 
As  Augustus  had  been  set  above  the  Roman  world  by  his 
new  name,  so  they  would  be  set  above  the  world  by  theirs. 

This  is  the  answer  which  the  Church  made  to  the  per- 
secuting Emperor,  who  beyond  all  his  predecessors  prided 
himself  on  his  divine  nature  and  his  divine  name.  To  in- 
sult, proscription,  a  shameful  death,  it  returns  a  triumphant 
defiance :  the  Emperor  is  powerless :  the  supreme  power 
and  authority  remain  with  the  victorious  Christian,  who 
defeats  the  Emperor  by  virtue  of  the  death  which  the 
Emperor  inflicts.  Here  for  the  first  time  in  the  Seven 
Letters  the  absolute  and  inexorable  opposition  between  the 
Church  and  the  Imperial  government  is  clearly  expressed. 
It  is  not  merely  that  the  State  persecutes  the  Church.  The 
Church  proscribes  and  sets  itself  above  the  Augustan  gov- 
ernment and  the  Augusti  themselves.  And  this  is  done  in 
the  letter  to  the  Church  of  that  city  where  the  Imperial 
government  with  the  Imperial  religion  had  placed  its  capital 
and  its  throne. 


312    XXII.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum 

The  taking  of  a  new  name,  and  the  meaning  attached  to 
this  in  the  usage  of  the  time,  was  orally  illustrated  by  the 
late  Dr.  Hort,  from  the  case  of  ^lius  Aristides,  the  famous 
orator  of  Hadrianoi  and  Smyrna,  as  I  am  informed  by  a 
correspondent,*  though  the  lecture  in  which  the  illustration 
was  stated  seems  never  to  have  been  published.  The  facts 
are  known  from  various  passages  of  Aristides,  chiefly  in 
the  Lalia  (Hymn)  to  ^Esculapius  and  in  the  Sacred  Dis- 
courses. 

The  case  of  Aristides,  who  was  bom  probably  in  A.D. 
117,^  may  be  taken  as  applicable  to  the  period  of  the 
Apocalypse.  Aristides  had  a  new  name,  which  was  given 
him  by  the  God,  appearing  to  him  in  the  form  of  ^scul  i- 
pius.  That  deity  was  his  chief  pro'ectcr  and  advi  er  and 
helper,  though  the  mo  her  of  the  God  also  reg  r^Ied  him 
as  \ie.x  protege  ■axi^  favourite,  ^sculapius  cuied  him  of  his 
disease,  guided  him  in  his  life  by  ordering  him  to  dev..te 
himself  to  oratory,  revealed  himself  to  his  favoured  servant, 
and  gave  him  the  name  Theodoras.  There  is  much  prob- 
ability that  the  name  was  given  in  a  vision,  though  the 
circumstances  are  not  quite  clear. 

The  evidence  lies  chiefly  in  a  remarkable  passage  at 
the  end  of  Aristides's  Hymn  to  .^sculapius,  which  Reiske 
declares  himself  unable  to  understand,  though  he  suggests 
tha;  it  refers  to  some  prophecy  vouchsafed  to  Aristides  by 
^sculapius  in  a  dream.  Words  which  Reiske  could  not 
understand  must  b.^  very  obscure;  and  hence  the  passage 
has  attracted  little  attention. 

It  is  rather  bold  to  suggest  an  explanation  where  that 
excellent  scholar  says  "«i7«  intelligo" ;  but  the  words  of 
Aristides  seem  to  illustrate  the  passage  before  us  so  well, 
that  an  interpretation  may  be  offered.     The  words  and  the 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum     313 

situation  are  as  follows.  Aristides  has  just  related  how 
throup,h  the  orders  and  aid  of  ^sculapius  he  had  appeared 
in  Rome  and  given  a  successful  disp.ay  of  oiatoiy  before 
the  two  Emperors,  the  ladies  of  the  Imperial  family  and 
the  whole  Imperial  court,  just  as  Ulysses  had  been  enabled 
by  Athena  to  display  his  eloquence  in  the  hall  of  Alcinous 
before  the  Phaeacian  audience.  He  proceeds  in  the  follow- 
ing very  enigmatic  words  :  "  And  not  only  had  these  things 
been  done  in  this  way,  but  also  the  Symbol  or  Synthema 
was  with  me  encouraging  me,  whilst  you  showed  in  act 
that  there  were  many  reasons  why  you  brought  me  before 
the  public,  viz.^  that  I  might  be  conspicuous  in  oratory,  and 
that  the  most  perfe^-t  (the  highest  circles  and  the  educated 
class)  might  hear  with  their  own  ears  the  better  counsels 
{i.e.  the  teaching  of  a  true  philosophy  and  morality)  ".^ 

The  nature  of  the  Synthema  which  Aristides  received 
from  the  god  he  does  not  explain.  The  obscurity  in  which 
he  leaves  it  is  obviously  intentional.  It  was  a  secret  be- 
tween the  god  and  himself;  he,  and  he  alone,  had  been 
initiated  by  the  god  into  this  ministry,  and  it  was  not  to  be 
published  for  every  one  to  know.  Only  they  should  under- 
stand who  might  be  initiated  into  the  same  mystery :  the 
word  and  the  sign  would  be  enough  for  them :  others  who 
were  outside  should  remain  ignorant. 

But  Aristides  adds  one  word  which  gives  a  hint  as  to  the 
purpose  and  effect  of  the  Synthema :  the  Synthema  was 
something  uvaKaXovv,  something  that  addressed  him  in  an 
earnest,  rousing  way,  a  practical  sign  and  proof  that  the 
god  for  various  reasons  brought  him  before  the  assembled 
world  in  order  that  he  should  gain  distinction  as  an  orator 
and  that  the  noblest  should  hear  with  their  own  ears 
good  counsel  on  good  subjects.     The  Synthema  then  was 


314    XXII.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum 

a  symbol  always  present  with  him  and  speaking  direct  to 
him  ;  it  was  a  pledge  of  success  from  the  god  who  gave  it, 
and  thus  filled  him  with  god-given  confidence.  Hence  it 
served  for  a  call  to  action  as  an  orator;  for  it  recalled  the 
orders  and  assurances  and  promises  which  the  god  had 
given  him  in  the  past,  and  was  a  pledge  that  there  still 
subsisted  between  the  god  and  his  votary  that  same  bond 
of  connection  and  mutual  confidence. 

Aristides  does  not  expressly  say  that  the  Synth6ma  was 
connected  with  the  new  name  that  was  bestowed  on  him 
by  the  god  ;  but  there  can  hardly  be  any  doubt  that  the 
name  and  the  sign  stood  in  some  close  relation  to  one 
another,  and  were  given  him  at  the  same  time,  probably 
(as  Reiske  thought)  in  a  dream.  In  that  dream  or  vision 
the  god  had  commissioned  him  to  the  profession  of  oratory, 
had  promised  him  constant  aid,  had  guaranteed  him  bril- 
liant success,  and  as  a  proof  and  pledge  of  the  promised 
aid  had  bestowed  on  him  a  new  name,  Theodorus,  "  the  gift 
of  god,"  and  a  sign.  So  much  seems  practically  certain. 
Only  one  thing  has  to  be  added,  which  seems  to  spring 
directly  from  these  facts:  the  Sign  must  have  been  the 
form  in  which  the  new  name  was  communicated.  Perhaps 
in  writing,  perhaps  in  some  other  way,  Aristides  had  always 
with  him  the  proof  of  the  god's  presence  and  aid.  The 
name  was  the  power  of  the  god,  at  once  encouraging  him 
to  effort  and  guaranteeing  success. 

In  a  sense  not  unlike  this,  the  term  Synthemata  was 
used  to  indicate  the  signs  or  words  of  a  symbolic  code) 
which  two  persons  arranged  with  one  another  in  order  that 
their  letters  might  convey  more  meaning  to  the  intended 
recipient  than  to  any  chance  reader  who  was  not  aware  of 
the  secret. 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Pergamum     315 

It  is  to  be  observed  that,  though  Aristides  regarded 
i^sculapius  as  his  special  protector  and  guide  in  life,  the 
name  which  was  given  him  was  not  Asclepiodoros,  but 
Theodores,  ^sculapius,  who  gave  him  the  name,  was 
merely  the  form  in  which  the  ultimate  divine  power  en- 
visaged itself  to  Aristides ;  it  was  "  the  god,"  and  not 
.^sculapius,  whose  name  he  bore. 

Orators  of  that  period  seem  commonly  to  have  regarded 
themselves  as  sent  by  divine  mission,  and  as  charged  with 
a  message  of  divine  truth.  So  Dion  Chrysostom  several 
times  claims  divine  mission  ;  and  in  one  of  his  speeches  at 
Tarsus  he  explains  that  all  that  happens  to  us  in  an 
unexpected,  unintended,  self-originated  way,  ought  to  be 
regarded  by  us  as  sent  to  us  by  the  god,  and  therefore, 
as  he  has  appeared  in  that  way  before  the  Tarsian  audience, 
they  should  regard  him  as  speaking  with  authority  as 
the  divine  messenger.  The  speech  was  delivered  probably 
in  the  third  period  of  Dion's  career,  which  began  when 
he  received  news  of  the  death  of  Domitian,  and  thus  his 
case  illustrates  strictly  contemporary  belief  about  those 
travelling  orators  and  teachers,  who  in  many  ways  show 
so  close  analogy  to  the  Christian  Apostles  and  travelling 
preachers. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THYATIRA:  WEAKNESS  MADE  STRONG.* 

Thyatira  was  situated  in  the  mouth  of  a  long  vale  which 
extends  north  and  south  connecting  the  Hermus  and  Caicos 
Valleys.  Down  the  vale  a  stream  flows  south  to  join  the 
Lycus  (near  whose  left  bank  Thyatira  was  situated),  one  of 
the  chief  tributaries  of  the  Hermus,  while  its  northern  end 
is  divided  by  only  a  ridge  of  small  elevation  from  the  Caicos 
Valley.  The  valleys  of  the  two  rivers,  Hermus  and  Caicos, 
stretch  east  and  west,  opening  down  from  the  edge  of  the 
great  central  plateau  of  Anatolia  towards  the  ^gean  Sea. 
Nature  has  marked  out  this  road,  a  very  easy  path,  for 
the  tide  of  communication  which  in  all  civilised  times  must 
have  been  large  between  the  one  valley  and  the  other.  The 
railway  traverses  its  whole  length  now  :  in  ancient  times  one 
of  the  chief  routes  of  Asia  Minor  traversed  it. 

Not  merely  did  all  communication  and  trade  between 
those  two  great  and  rich  valleys  pass  up  and  down  the 
vale ;  but  also,  in  certain  periods  and  in  certain  conditions 
of  the  general  economy  of  Asia  Minor  and  the  /Egean  lands, 
a  main  artery  of  the  Anatolian  system  of  communication 
made  use  of  it.  The  land-road  connecting  Constantinople 
with  Smyrna  and  the  south-western  regions  of  Asia  Minor 
goes  that  way,  and  has  been  at  some  periods  an  important 
route.  The  Imperial  Post-road  took  that  course  in  Roman 
times.^     Above  all,  when  Pergamum  was  the  capital  of  Asia 

(316) 


Thyatira  :    Weakness  made  Strong         3 1 7 

under  the  kings,  that  was  the  most  important  road  in  the 
whole  country ;  and  its  importance  as  the  one  great  route 
from  Pergamum  to  the  south-east  (including  all  the  vast 
regions  of  the  central  Anatolian  plateau,  Syria  and  the 
East  generally)  was  proportionate  to  the  importance  which 
the  official  capital  of  the  Province  retained  under  the  Roman 
administration. 

In  the  middle  of  that  vale,  with  a  very  slight  rising  ground 
to  serve  for  a  citadel  or  acropolis,  Thyatira  was  built  by 
Seleucus  I.,  the  founder  of  the  Seleucid  dynasty,  whose  vast 
realm,  extending  from  the  Hermus  Valley  to  the  Himalayas, 
was  everywhere  bounded  loosely  according  to  the  varying 
strength  of  rival  powers.  The  boundary  at  this  north- 
western extremity  was  determined  at  that  period  by  the 
power  of  Lysimachus,  who  ruled  parts  of  Thrace,  Mysia 
and  the  coast-lands  as  far  south  as  Ephesus.  For  defence 
against  him,  a  colony  of  Macedonian  soldiers  was  planted  at 
Thyatira  between  300  and  282  B.C.  The  situation  chosen 
implies  that  the  Caicos  Valley  belonged  at  that  moment 
to  Lysimachus.  Now  Philetaerus  governed  Pergamum  and 
guarded  the  treasure  of  Lysimachus  for  many  years,  and 
during  that  time  the  whole  Caicos  Valley  would  naturally 
go  along  with  Pergamum,  while  the  Hermus  Valley  belonged 
to  the  Seleucid  realm. 

In  282  Philetaerus  revolted  and  founded  the  Pergamenian 
kingdom.  At  first  he  was  encouraged  by  Seleucus  in  order 
to  weaken  Lysimachus ;  but  soon  this  bond  of  a  common 
enmity  was  dissolved  at  the  death  of  the  enemy,  and  then 
Thyatira  was  a  useful  garrison  to  hold  the  road,  first  in 
the  interest  of  the  Seleucid  kings  and  afterwards  on  the 
Pergamenian  side.  So  long  as  the  kings  of  Pergamum 
were  masters  of  Thyatira  they  were   safe  from   Seleucid 


3i8     XXIII.   Thyatira:   Weakness  made  Strong 

attack  ;  but  if  the  Syrian  kings  possessed  that  key  to  the 
gate  of  the  Caicos  Valley,  Pergamum  was  narrowed  in  its 
dominion  and  weakened  in  its  defences.  Thus,  the  relation 
between  the  two  cities  was  necessarily  a  very  close  one. 
The  condition  of  Thyatira  was  the  best  measure  of  the 
power  of  Pergamum. 

This  historical  sketch  is  necessary,  in  order  to  show  the 
character  of  Thyatira  and  the  place  which  it  holds  in  his- 
tory. It  came  into  existence  to  be  a  garrison-city  ;  and  its 
importance   to   the   two  rival    dynasties    who   alternately 


Fia.  26.— The  hero  of  Thyatira. 

ruled  it  lay  in  its  military  strength.  But  no  city  has 
been  given  by  nature  less  of  the  look  or  strength  of  a  for- 
tress than  Thyatira.  It  lies  in  an  open,  smiling  vale, 
bordered  by  gently  sloping  hills,  of  moderate  elevation, 
but  sufficient  to  overshadow  the  vale.  It  possesses  no 
proper  acropolis,  and  the  whole  impression  which  the  situa- 
tion gives  is  of  weakness,  subjection  and  dependence.  The 
most  careless  and  casual  observer  could  never  take  Thyatira 
for  a  ruling  city,  or  the  capital  of  an  Empire.  Its  character 
is  seen  in  the  two  views  on  Plates  VIII.,  IX.     It  is  essenti- 


Thyatira  :   Weakness  made  Strong         3 1 9 

ally  a  handmaid  city,  built  to  serve  an  Empire  by  obstructing 
for  a  little  the  path  of  its  enemies  and  so  giving  time  for 
the  concentration  of  its  military  strength.     Plate  VIII. 

The  natural  weakness  of  the  position  imposed  all  the 
more  firmly  on  the  kingdom  whose  frontier  it  guarded  the 
necessity  of  attending  to  its  military  strength  by  careful 
fortification  and  by  maintaining  in  it  a  trained  and  devoted 
garrison.  The  military  spirit  of  the  soldier-citizens  had 
to  be  encouraged  to  the  utmost.  This  tendency  towards 
militarism  must  inevitably  characterise  Thyatira  in  all  times 


FlO.  27. — Caracalla  adoring  the  God  of  Thyatira. 

of  uncertainty  and  of  possible  warfare  :  the  function  of  the 
city  was  to  make  a  weak  position  strong,  supply  a  defect, 
and  guard  against  an  ever-threatening  danger. 

The  religion  of  an  ancient  city  always  summed  up  its 
character  in  brief.  The  Thyatiran  religion  is  obscure,  and 
our  chief  authority  lies  in  the  coins  of  the  city.  A  hero 
Tyrimnos  represents  the  Thyatiran  conception  of  the  city's 
function  in  the  world.  He  goes  forth  on  horseback  with 
the  battle-axe  over  his  shoulder,  the  fit  representative  of  a 
military  colony,  to  conquer,  and  to  dash  his  enemies  in 


320     XXIII.    Thyatira:   Weakness  made  Strong 

pieces.  How  far  he  may  have  a  Macedonian  origin,  as 
brought  with  them  by  the  first  Macedonian  soldiers  who 
were  settled  there,  remains  doubtful ;  but  his  aspect  in  art 
is  entirely  that  of  a  common  Anatolian  heroic  figure,  as 
shown  in  Fig.  26. 

This  hero  Tyrimnos  is  closely  related  in  nature  to  the 
tutelary  god  of  Thyatira,  whose  full  titles  are  recorded  in 
inscriptions :  he  was  styled  Propolis  because  he  had  his 
temple  in  front  of  the  city,  Propator  as  the  divine  ancestor 
(doubtless  both  of  the  city  as  a  who^i  and  specially  of 
some  leading  family  or  families),  Helios  the  sun-god,  Pythian 
Tyrimnaean  Apollo,  a  strange  mixture  of  Hellenic  and  Ana- 
tolian names.  This  god  is  never  named  on  the  coins,  so 
far  as  published  ;  but  he  often  appears  as  a  type  on  them, 
a  standing  figure,  wearing  only  a  cloak  (chlamys)  fastened 
with  a  brooch  round  his  neck,  carrying  a  battle-axe  over 
one  shoulder,  and  holding  forth  in  his  right  hand  a  laurel- 
branch,  which  symbolises  his  purifying  power.  This  elab- 
orate and  highly  composite  impersonation  of  the  Divine 
nature,  with  so  many  names  and  such  diversity  of  character, 
seems  to  have  been  produced  by  a  syncretism  of  different 
religious  ideas  in  the  evolution  of  the  city.  Examples  are 
given  in  Figs.  27,  28. 

Thyatira  was  certainly  inhabited  before  the  time  of 
Seleucus.  The  site  is  so  favourable  that  it  must  become 
a  centre  of  population  from  the  beginning  of  history  in  the 
valley.  But  it  was  made  a  city  by  Seleucus  with  a  great 
accession  of  population.  Previously  it  had  been  a  mere 
Anatolian  village  round  a  central  temple.  The  foundation 
of  the  garrison  city  was  not  without  effect  on  the  religion 
of  the  locality.  It  was  inevitable  that  the  new-comers 
should  worship  the  god  whose  power  in  the  country  had 


Thyatira :   Weakness  made  Strong.         321 

been  proved  by  the  experience  of  generations  ;  but  they 
brought  with  them  also  their  own  reh'gious  ideas,  and  these 
ideas  necessarily  affected  their  conception  of  the  nature  of 
this  god  whom  they  found  at  home  in  the  land  and  whose 
power  they  respected  and  trusted.  T)'rimnos,  whatever 
his  origin  may  have  been,  was  the  heroic  embodiment  of 
the  spirit  of  the  garrison  city ;  and  the  Anatolian  god  of 
the  locality  took  into  himself  some  of  the  nature  of  the 
hero,  as  Helios  Tyrimnaios  Pythios  Apollo,  a  conception 


FlQ.  38. — The  Emperor  and  the  god  of  Thyatira  supporting  with  joined 
hands  the  Imperial  Tyrimnaean  Pythian  Games. 

at  once  Anatolian,  military,  and  Hellenic.  The  god  united 
in  himself  the  character  of  all  sections  of  the  population,  so 
that  all  might  find  in  him  their  own  nature  and  the  satis- 
faction of  their  own  religious  cravings. 

He  stands  for  his  city  in  alliance-coins  with  Pergamum  ; 
and  frequently  a  female  figure,  wearing  a  turreted  crown 
(the  accepted  representation  of  the  genius  of  any  fortified 
city),  holds  him  forth  on  her  extended  right  hand  (as  on 
Fig.  27),  thus  intimating  that  Thyatira  was  devoted  to  the 
service  of  this  god.     In  Fig.  28  the  Emperor  Elagabalus, 


322     XXIII.   Thyatira:   Weakness  made  Strong 

in  the  dress  of  a  Roman  general,  is  shown  with  his  right 
hand  in  that  of  Apollo  Tyrimnaios,  supporting  between 
them  an  urn,  over  which  is  the  name  "  Pythia  ".  The  urn 
is  the  regular  symbol  of  those  gymnastic  and  other  com- 
petitive sports  in  which  the  Hellenic  cities  delighted  ;  and 
the  name  inscribed  above  shows  that  the  Thyatiran  games 
were  modelled  upon  the  Pythian  games  of  Greece.  Be- 
tween the  Emperor  and  the  god  is  an  altar  flaming  with 
the  sacrifice.  The  coin  was,  indubitably,  struck  in  gratitude 
for  some  favour  granted  by  the  Emperor  in  connection  with 
those  games  in  Thyatira.  What  the  favour  was  can  be 
determined  with  great  probability. 

The  union  of  the  Emperor  and  the  god  in  supporting 
these  games  is  the  symbolic  fashion  of  intimating,  in  a  way 
adapted  for  the  surface  of  a  coin,  that  the  Emperor  and  the 
god  were  united  in  the  honour  of  the  festival,  that  is  to  say, 
the  festival  was  no  longer  celebrated  in  honour  of  the  god 
alone,  but  included  both  Emperor  and  god.  In  other  words 
Elagabalus  sanctioned  the  addition  of  the  honourable  title 
Augustan  to  the  old  Tyrimnaean  festival.  During  the  third 
century  the  feast  and  the  games  regularly  bear  the  double 
title,  an  example  of  the  closer  relation  between  the  Imperial 
and  the  popular  religion  in  Asia  under  the  later  Empire.' 

Seleucus  I.,  the  founder  of  Thyatira,  is  mentioned  by 
Josephus  as  having  shown  special  favour  to  the  Jews  and 
made  them  citizens  in  the  cities  which  he  founded  in  Asia.* 
The  probability  that  he  settled  a  body  of  Jews  in  Thyatira 
must  therefore  be  admitted,  for  he  knew  well  that  soldiers 
alone  could  not  make  a  city  (see  p.  130).  Beyond  this 
it  is  not  possible  to  go  with  certainty ;  but  some  slight 
indications  are  known  of  the  presence  of  Jews  in  Thy- 
atira    Lydia  the  Thyatiran  in  Philippi  was  "  God-fearing," 


Thyatira  :  Weakness  made  Strong         323 

i.e.^  she  had  come  within  the  circle  of  influence  of  the 
Synagogue.  Professor  E.  Schiirer  in  a  very  interesting 
paper  has  suggested  the  possibility  that  the  sanctuary  of 
Sambethe  the  Oriental  (Chaldaean,  or  Hebrew,  or  Persian) 
Sibyl  in  the  Chaldaean's  precinct  before  the  city  of  Thyatira 
might  have  been  formed  under  Hebrew  influence  :  accord- 
ing to  this  suggestion  the  sanctuary  would  have  arisen  in 
an  attempted  syncretism  of  Jewish  and  pagan  religious 
ideas.  But  this  remains  as  yet  a  mere  tantalising  possi- 
bility.'^ 

The  history  of  Thyatira  is  a  blank.  Its  fate  in  the  many 
centuries  of  fighting  between  Mohammedans  (Arabs  first, 
then  Turks)  and  Christians  must  have  been  a  sad  one.  It 
is  one  of  those  cities  whose  situation  exposes  them  to  destruc- 
tion by  every  conqueror,  and  yet  compels  their  restoration 
after  every  siege  and  sack.  It  lies  right  in  the  track  of 
invasion :  it  blocks  the  way  and  must  be  captured  by  an 
invader ;  it  guards  the  passage  to  a  rich  district,  and  hence 
it  must  be  defended  to  the  last,  and  so  provoke  the  barbarity 
of  the  assailant :  but  it  could  never  be  made  a  really  strong 
fortress  in  ancient  warfare,  so  as  to  resist  successfully.  Yet 
the  successful  assailant  must  in  his  turn  refortify  the  city, 
if  he  wants  to  hold  the  country.  He  must  make  it  the 
guardian  of  his  gate ;  he  must  make  it  a  garrison  city.  Its 
situation  defines  its  history;  but  the  history  has  not  been 
recorded. 

The  same  local  conditions  which  ensured  for  Thyatira  so 
unfortunate  a  fate  in  unsettled  times  favoured  its  prosper- 
ity in  a  period  of  profound  peace.  The  garrison  city  could 
never  be  a  large  one,  for  a  multitude  of  inhabitants  devoted 
to  the  arts  of  peace  would  seriously  detract  from  its  military 
strength.     But  in  the  long  peace  of  the  Roman  Empire 


324     XXIII.   Thyatira:   Weakness  made  Strong 

Thyatira  ceased  to  be  a  mere  military  city,  though  the  his- 
torical memory  and  the  military  character  of  the  municipal 
religion  still  persisted.  The  city  grew  large  and  wealthy. 
It  was  a  centre  of  communication.  Vast  numbers  passed 
through  it.  It  commanded  a  rich  and  fertile  vale.  Many 
of  the  conditions  of  a  great  trading  city  were  united  there. 

This  period  of  great  prosperity  and  increase  was  only 
beginning  when  the  Seven  Letters  were  written.  Thyatira 
was  still  a  small  city,  retaining  strong  memories  of  its 
military  origin,  and  yet  with  fortifications  decayed  and  dis- 
mantled in  the  long  freedom  from  terror  of  attack,  which 
had  lasted  since  189  B.C.^  Yet  the  Roman  peace  had  at 
first  brought  no  prosperity,  only  oppression  and  extortion. 
When  the  Empire  at  last  was  inaugurated,  prosperity  re- 
turned to  Asia  (see  p.  115)  ;  and  Thyatira  soon  began  to 
take  advantage  of  its  favourable  situation  for  trade,  though 
it  was  not  till  the  second  century  after  Christ  that  the  full 
effect  became  manifest. 

The  coinage  of  Thyatira  is  a  good  index  of  the  character 
of  the  city.  As  a  military  colony,  in  its  earlier  stage  of 
existence,  it  struck  various  classes  of  coins,  including  cisto- 
phori.  This  coinage  came  to  an  end  before  150  B.C.;  for 
the  military  importance  of  Thyatira  lay  in  its  position  as  a 
frontier  city;  and  that  ceased  after  189  B.C.  It  was  not 
until  the  last  years  of  the  reign  of  Claudius,  50-54  A.D.,  that 
it  began  again  to  issue  coins.  They  gradually  became  more 
numerous  ;  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  second  century,  and 
in  the  third  century,  the  coinage  of  Thyatira  was  on  a  great 
scale,  indicating  prosperity  and  wealth  in  the  city. 

It  is  therefore  not  surprising  that  more  trade-guilds  are 
known  in  Thyatira  than  in  any  other  Asian  city.  The 
inscriptions,  though  not  specially   numerous,  mention  the 


Thyatira :   Weakness  made  Strong         325 


following  :  wool-workers,  linen-workers,  makers  of  outer  gar- 
ments, dyers,  leather-workers,  tanners,  potters,  bakers,  slave- 
dealers  and  bronze-smiths.  The  dealers  in  garments  and 
the  slave-dealers  would  have  a  good  market  in  a  road- 
centre.  Garments  were  sold  ready  made,  being  all  loose 
and  free  ;  and  from  the  mention  of  dealers  in  outer  garments 
we  may  infer  the  existence  of  special  trades  and  guilds  for 
other  classes  of  garments.  The  woman  of  Thyatira,  a  seller 
of  purple,  named  Lydia,  who  was  so  hospitable  to  St.  Paul 
and  his  company  at  Philippi  (Acts  xvi  14),  belonged  doubt- 


FiG.  29. — The  Thyatiran  bronze-smith, 

less  to  one  of  those  guilds :  she  sold  not  simply  purple 
cloth  but  purple  garments,  and  had  emigrated  to  push  the 
trade  in  Thyatiran  manufactures  in  the  Macedonian  city. 
The  purple  in  which  she  dealt  cannot  be  regarded  as  made 
with  the  usual  dye,  for  that  was  obtained  from  a  shell-fish 
found  chiefly  on  the  Phoenician  and  the  Spartan  coasts. 
The  colour  in  which  Lydia  dealt  must  have  been  a  product 
of  the  Thyatiran  region  ;  and  Monsieur  Clerc,  in  his  work 
on  the  city,^  suggests  what  is  at  once  seen  plainly  to  be 
true,  that  the  well-known  Turkey-red  was  the  colour  which 


326     XXIII.    Thyatira:   Weakness  made  Strong 

is  meant.  This  bright  red  is  obtained  from  madder-root, 
which  grows  abundantly  in  those  regions.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  ancient  names  of  colours  were  used  with  great 
laxity  and  freedom  ;  and  the  name  purple,  being  established 
and  fashionable,  was  used  for  several  colours  which  to  us 
seem  essentially  diverse  from  one  another. 

A  special  interest  attaches  to  Fig.  29.  The  divine  smith, 
Hephaestus,  dressed  as  a  workman,  is  here  seated  at  an  anvil 
(represented  only  by  a  small  pillar),  holding  in  his  left  hand 
a  pair  of  forceps,  and  giving  the  finishing  blow  with  his 
hammer  to  a  helmet,  for  which  the  goddess  of  war,  Pallas 
Athene,  is  holding  out  her  hand.  Considering  that  a  guild 
of  bronze-smiths  is  mentioned  at  Thyatira,  we  cannot  doubt 
that  this  coin  commemorates  the  peculiar  importance  for 
the  welfare  of  Thyatira  of  the  bronze-workers'  handicraft ; 
and  we  must  infer  that  bronze  work  was  carried  to  a  high 
state  of  perfection  in  the  city. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE  LETTER  TO  THE  CHURCH  IN  THYATIRA. 

These  things  saith  the  Son  of  God,  who  hath  his  eyes  like  a  flame  of 
fire,  and  his  feet  are  like  bright  bronze : 

I  know  thy  works,  cmd  thy  love  and  faith  and  ministry  and  patience, 
and  that  thy  last  works  are  more  than  the  first.  But  I  have  this  against 
thee,  that  thou  sufferest  the  woman  of  thine,  fezebel,  which  calleth  herself  a 
prophetess  ;  and  she  teacheth  and  seduceth  my  servants  to  commit  fornica- 
tion, and  to  eat  things  sacrificed  to  idols.  And  I  gave  her  time  that  she 
should  repent ;  and  she  willeth  not  to  repent  of  her  fornication.  Behold, 
I  set  her  on  a  banqueting  couch,  and  them  that  commit  adultery  with  her,  to 
enjoy  great — tribulation,  except  they  repent  of  her  works.  And  I  will  kill 
her  children  with  death;  and  all  the  churches  shall  know  that  I  am  he 
which  searcheth  the  reins  and  hearts :  and  I  will  give  unto  each  one  of  you 
according  to  your  works.  But  to  you  I  say,  to  the  rest  that  are  in  Thya- 
tira,  as  many  as  have  not  this  teaching,  which  know  not  the  deep  things  of 
Satan,  as  they  say  ;  I  lay  upon  you  no  other  burden.  Howbeit  that  which 
ye  have,  hold  fast  till  I  come. 

And  he  that  overcometh,  and  he  that  keepeth  my  works  unto  the  end,  to 
him  will  I  give  authority  over  the  nations :  and  he  shall  rule  them  with  a 
rod  of  iron,  as  the  vessels  of  the  potter  are  broken  to  shivers  ;  as  I  also  have 
received  of  my  Father :  and  I  will  give  him  the  morning  star. 

He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  to  the  churches. 

This  is  in  many  respects  the  most  obscure,  as  it  is  certainly 
the  longest,  and  probably  in  a  historical  view  the  most  in- 
structive of  all  the  Seven  Letters.  Its  obscurity  is  doubt- 
less caused  in  a  considerable  degree  by  the  fact  that  the 
history  of  Thyatira,  and  the  character  and  circumstances 
of  the  city  in  the  first  century  after  Christ,  are  almost  en- 
tirely unknown  to  us.     Hence  those  allusions  to  the  past 

(327) 


v/ 


328     XXIV.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira 

history  and  the  present  situation  of  affairs  in  the  city, 
which  we  have  found  the  most  instructive  and  illuminative 
parts  of  the  letters  to  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  and  Pergamum, 
are  in  the  case  of  Thyatira  the  most  obscure.  We  have 
some  idea  of  what  were  the  proper  topics  for  an  orator  to 
enlarge  on  when  he  wished  to  please  the  people  of  Ephesus 
or  Perc;^amum.  We  know  how  a  rhetorician  like  Aelius 
Aristides  tickled  the  ears  of  the  Smyrnaeans.  We  know 
what  events  in  the  past  history  of  those  cities,  as  well  as  of 
Sardis,  had  sunk  into  the  heart  of  the  inhabitants,  and 
were  remembered  by  all  with  ever  fresh  joy  or  sorrow. 
Even  in  the  case  of  the  secondary  cities,  Laodicea  and 
Philadelphia,  we  learn  some  hi ng  from  various  ancient 
authorities  about  the  leading  facts  of  their  history  and  pre- 
sent circumstances,  the  sources  of  their  wealth,  the  staple 
of  their  trade,  the  disasters  that  had  befallen  them.  But 
about  Thyatira  we  know  extremely  little.  Historians  and 
ancient  writers  generally  rarely  allude  to  it,  and  the  numer- 
ous inscriptions  which  have  been  discovered  and  published 
throw  little  or  no  light  (so  far  as  we  can  at  present  detect) 
upon  the  letter  which  we  are  now  studying. 

There  is  a  considerable  resemblance  between  the  Thya- 
tiran  and  Pergamenian  letters.  Those  were  the  only  two 
of  the  Seven  Cities  which  had  been  strongly  affected  by  the 
Nicolaitan  teaching,  and  both  letters  are  dominated  by  the 
strenuous  hatred  of  the  writer  for  that  heresy.  Moreover, 
those  two  cities  lay  a  little  apart  from  the  rest,  away  in  the 
north.  They  were  the  two  Mysian  c'ties  of  the  Seven. 
Pergamum  was  always  called  a  Mysian  city.  Thyatira  was 
sometimes  called  "  the  last,  i.e.  the  most  southerly,  city  of 
Mysia";  and  it  stood  in  t!  ?  closest  relations  with  Perga- 
mum, when  the  latter  was  the  capital  of  the  Attalid  kings ; 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in   Thyatira     329 

although,  in  the  proverbial  uncertainty  of  the  Mysian 
frontier,  most  people  considered  it  a  city  of  Lydia.  It  may 
therefore  be  presumed  that  the  two  had  a  certain  local 
character  in  common. 

Accordingly,  there  may  be  traced  a  common  type  both 
in  the  preliminary  addresses  and  in  the  promises  at  the  end 
of  those  two  letters.  The  strength  of  authority,  the  sword 
as  the  symbol  of  the  power  of  life  and  death,  the  tessera 
inscribed  with  the  secret  name  of  might — such  are  the  topics 
that  give  character  to  the  Pergamenian  exordium  and  con- 
clusion. The  Thyatiran  letter  proceeds  from  "  the  Son  of 
God,  who  hath  His  eyes  like  a  flame  of  fire  and  His  feet 
like  unto  bright  bronze"  (the  very  hard  alloyed  metal, 
used  for  weapons,  and  under  proper  treatment  assuming  a 
brilliant  polished  gleam  approximating  to  gold);  to  the 
victorious  Christian  of  Thyatira  is  promised  "  authority  over 
the  nations,  and  he  shall  rule  them  with  a  rod  of  iron  as 
the  vessels  of  the  potter  are  broken  to  shivers  "  ;  the  terror 
and,  as  one  might  almost  say,  the  cruelty  of  this  promise  is 
mitigated  by  the  conclusion,  "  and  I  will  give  him  the  morn- 
ing star".  The  spirit  of  the  address  and  the  promise  is 
throughout  of  dazzlingly  impressive  might,  the  irresistible 
strength  of  a  great  monarch  and  a  vast  well-ordered  army. 

The  words  which  are  used  in  this  Thyatiran  address  have 
an  appropriateness,  which  we  can  only  guess  at.  The  term 
"  chalkolibanos,"  which  may  be  rather  vaguely  rendered 
"  bright  bronze,"  never  occurs  except  in  the  Apocalypse.  Its 
exact  sense  was  doubtless  known  to  the  guild  of  the  bronze- 
workers  in  Thyatira  ;  but  only  the  name  of  this  city  guild  has 
been  preserved,  without  any  information  as  to  the  industry 
which  they  practised.  This  is  one  of  the  details  on  which 
better  local  knowledge  would  almost  certainly  throw  light. 


330     XXIV.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira 

It  may  be  regarded  as  probable,  though  no  other  author- 
ity ever  mentions  this  obscure  term,  that  chalkoHbanos 
was  made  in  Thyatira ;  but  all  that  can  be  stated  with 
certainty  is  that  the  city  was  a  trading  and  manufacturing 
centre,  that  we  know  of  an  exceptionally  large  and  varied 
series  of  trade-guilds  in  it,  and  that  among  them  occurred 
the  bronze-smiths  and  modellers  in  bronze  (either  as  two 
separate  guilds  or  as  one).  The  word  chalkoHbanos  occurs 
also  in  i.  15,  but  (as  has  been  pointed  out  in  chapter  xiii.) 
the  description  of  "one  like  unto  a  son  of  man,"  i.  12  fF., 
was  obviously  composed  with  a  view  to  the  Seven  Letters, 
so  as  to  exhibit  there,  united  in  one  personality,  the  various 
characteristics  which  were  to  be  thereafter  mentioned  separ- 
ately in  the  letters.  Accordingly  the  chalkoHbanos  may 
probably  have  suggested  itself  in  the  first  place  for  the 
purposes  of  the  Thyatiran  letter ;  so  that  its  use  in  i.  15 
may  be  secondary,  merely  to  prepare  for  the  letter. 

The  omission  of  the  "  sword  "  as  the  symbol  of  might 
also  shows  characteristic  accuracy  in  the  choice  of  details. 
The  sword  was  the  symbol  of  higher  official  authority  ac- 
cording to  the  Roman  usage.  It  shows,  therefore,  a  marked 
appropriateness  that  the  writer  should  use  the  term  "sword" 
in  reference  to  Pergamum,  the  official  capital  and  seat  of 
the  Roman  Proconsul,  but  avoid  it  in  the  case  of  Thyatira. 
On  the  other  hand  the  "  rod  of  iron  "  is  expressive  of  might 
that  is  not  thought  of  as  associated  with  formal  authority, 
but  merely  arises  from  innate  strength.  Thyatira  could  not 
properly  bear  the  sword,  but  only  the  iron  bar. 

The  original  character  of  Thyatira  had  been  military.  It 
was  a  colony  of  Macedonian  soldiers,  planted  to  guard  the 
long  pass  leading  north  and  south  between  the  Hermus 
Valley  and   the  Caicus   Valley,  between   Sardis  and   Per- 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in   Thy  at  ir a     331 

gamum.  Its  tutelary  deity  was  Tyrimnos,  originally  ap- 
parently a  hero,  but  merged  in  the  divine  nature  as  Apollo 
Tyrimnaios.  The  hero  is  represented  often  as  a  horse- 
man with  a  double-edged  battle-axe  on  his  shoulder,  an 
appropriate  deity  for  a  military  colony.  The  glitter  and 
brilliance  and  smashing  power  of  a  great  army,  or  a 
military  colony,  or  the  Divine  Author  of  the  Thyatiran 
letter,  are  embodied  in  him. 

In  short,  just  as  in  the  case  of  Pergamum,  so  here  again, 
the  promise  sets  the  true  and  victorious  Christian  in  the 
place  and  dignity  of  the  Roman  Emperor.  Rome  was  the 
only  power  on  earth  that  exercised  authority  over  the  na- 
tions, and  ruled  them  with  a  rod  of  iron,  and  smashed  them 
like  potsherds :  to  the  Roman  State  that  description  is 
startlingly  applicable.  Accordingly  the  promise  here  de- 
signates the  victor  as  heir  to  a  greater,  more  terrible,  more 
irresistible  strength  than  even  the  power  of  the  mighty 
Empire  with  all  its  legions.  The  opposition  was  more 
precisely  and  antithetically  expressed  in  the  case  of  Perga- 
mum, at  least  to  the  readers  who  were  within  the  circle  of 
ancient  ideas  and  education ;  though  probably  the  modern 
mind  is  likely  to  recognise  the  antithesis  between  the  Church 
and  the  Empire  more  readily  and  clearly  in  the  Thyatiran 
letter,  since  we  at  the  distance  of  nearly  2,000  years  can 
more  readily  call  up  in  imagination  the  military  strength  of 
the  Empire  and  its  armies.  But  in  the  first  century  the 
minds  of  men  were  filled  and  awed  by  the  thought  of  the 
Emperor  as  the  central  figure  of  the  whole  earth,  concen- 
trating on  himself  the  loyal  religious  feelings  of  all  nations, 
and  holding  in  his  hands  that  complete  authority,  indefin- 
able because  too  wide  for  definition,  which  the  autocrat 
of  the  civilised  world  exercised  by  the  simple  expression 


332     XXIV.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira 

of  his  will ;  and  that  is  the  idea  to  which  the  Pergamenian 
letter  appealed. 

It  could  not  escape  the  attention  of  an  Asian  reader 
at  that  time  that  this  irresistible  power  and  strength  were 
promised  to  the  city  which  was  at  that  time  the  smallest 
and  feeblest,  and  in  general  estimation  the  least  distin- 
guished and  famous,  of  all  the  Seven  Cities,  except  perhaps 
Philadelphia,  which  might  vie  with  Thyatira  for  the  last 
place  on  the  list. 

The  local  surroundings  of  Thyatira  accentuate  this  com- 
paratively humble  character  of  its  fortunes.  It  lies  in  the 
middle  of  a  long  valley  between  parallel  ridges  of  hills  of 
no  great  elevation,  which  rise  with  gentle  slope  from  the 
valley.  Thus  there  is  the  most  marked  contrast  between 
the  situation  of  Thyatira — now  "  sleeping  safe  in  the  bosom 
of  the  plain "  under  the  peace  of  the  Roman  rule,  though 
(if  any  enemies  had  existed)  easily  open  to  attack  from 
every  side,  dominated  by  even  those  low  and  gentle 
ranges  of  hills  on  east  and  west,  beautiful  with  a  gentle, 
smiling,  luxuriant  softness  and  grace — and  the  proud  and 
lofty  acropolis  of  Sardis,  or  the  huge  hill  of  Pergamum, 
or  the  mountain-walls  of  Ephesus  and  the  castled  hill  of 
Smyrna,  each  with  its  harbour,  or  the  long  sloping  hillside 
on  which  Philadelphia  rises  high  above  its  plain,  or  the 
plateau  of  Laodicea,  not  lofty,  yet  springing  sharp  and  bold 
from  the  plain  of  the  Lycus,  crowned  with  a  long  line  of 
strong  walls  and  so  situated  on  the  protruding  apex  of  a 
triangular  extent  of  hilly  ground  that  it  seems  to  stand  up 
in  the  middle  of  the  plain.     Plate  IX. 

Military  skill,  such  as  the  Pergamenian  kings  had  at  their 
command,  could  of  course  so  fortify  Thyatira  as  to  make  it 
strong  enough  to  hold  the  passage  up  the  long  valley.     The 


t'i      ~ 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in   Thyattra     333 

importance  of  the  city  to  the  kings  lay  in  the  fact  that  it 
guarded  the  road  from  the  Hermus  Valley  and  the  East 
generally  to  Pergamum.  Its  function  in  the  world  at  first 
had  been  to  serve  as  attendant  and  guard  to  the  governing 
royal  city.  Now,  under  the  long  peace  of  the  Imperial  rule, 
it  had  become  a  town  of  trade  and  peaceful  industry,  profit- 
ing by  its  command  of  a  fertile  plain  and  still  more  by  its 
situation  on  a  great  road  ;  and  beyond  all  doubt  the  military 
character  of  its  foundation  by  the  kings,  as  a  garrison  of 
Macedonian  soldiers  to  block  the  road  to  their  capital  from 
the  south,  was  now  only  a  historical  memory. 

Thus  Thyatira  of  all  the  Seven  Cities  seemed  in  every 
way  the  least  fitted  by  nature  and  by  history  to  rule  over 
the  nations  ;  and  it  could  not  fail  to  be  observed  by  the 
Asian  readers  as  a  notable  thing,  that  the  Church  of  this 
weakest  and  least  famous  of  the  cities  should  be  promised 
such  a  future  of  strength  and  universal  power.  Beyond  all 
doubt  the  writer  of  the  Seven  Letters,  who  knew  the  cities 
so  well,  must  have  been  conscious  of  this,  and  must  have 
relied  on  it  for  the  effect  which  he  aimed  at. 

As  we  go  through  the  Seven  Letters  point  by  point,  each 
detail  confirms  our  impression  of  the  unhesitating  and  sub- 
lime confidence  in  the  victory  of  the  Church  which  prompts 
and  enlivens  them.  The  Emperor,  the  Roman  State  with 
its  patriotism,  its  religion,  and  its  armies,  the  brutal  popu- 
lace of  the  cities,  the  Jews,  and  every  other  enemy  of  the 
Church,  all  are  raging  and  persecuting  and  slaying  to  the 
utmost  of  their  power.  But  their  power  is  naught.  The 
real  Church  stands  outside  of  their  reach,  immeasurably 
above  them,  secure  and  triumphant,  "eternal  in  the  heavens," 
while  the  individual  Christians  work  out  their  victory  in 
their  own  life  and  above  all  by  their  death ;  so  that  the 


334     XXIV.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira 

more  successfully  the  enemy  kills  them  off,  the  more  ab- 
solute is  his  defeat,  and  the  more  complete  and  immediate 
is  their  victory.  The  weakest  and  least  honoured  among 
those  Christian  martyrs,  as  he  gains  his  victory  by  death, 
is  invested  with  that  authority  over  the  nations,  which 
the  proud  Empire  believed  that  its  officials  and  governors 
wielded,  and  rules  with  a  power  more  supreme  than  that 
of  Rome  herself. 

The  conclusion  of  the  promise,  "/  will  give  him  the 
morning  star"  seems  to  have  been  added  with  the  calcu- 
lated intention  of  expressing  the  other  side  of  the  Christian 
character.  The  honour  promised  was  evidently  too  exclu- 
sively terrible.  But  the  addition  must  be  in  keeping  with 
the  rest  of  the  promise.  The  brightness,  gleam  and  glitter, 
as  of  '^ an  army  with  banners"  which  rules  through  the 
opening  address  and  the  concluding  promise,  is  expressed 
in  a  milder  spirit,  without  the  terrible  character,  though 
the  brilliance  remains  or  is  even  increased,  in  the  image  of 
*'  the  morning  star  ". 

Having  observed  the  close  relation  between  the  Per- 
gamenian  and  the  Thyatiran  letter,  we  shall  recognise  a 
similar  analogy  between  the  Ephesian  and  the  Sardian, 
and  again  between  the  Smyrnaean  and  the  Philadelphian 
letters.  Those  six  letters  constitute  three  pairs  ;  and  each 
pair  must  be  studied  not  only  in  its  separate  parts,  but  also 
in  the  mutual  relation  of  the  two  parts.  Only  the  Laodi- 
cean letter  stands  alone,  just  as  Laodicea  stood  apart  from 
the  other  six,  the  representative  of  the  distant  and  very 
different  Phrygian  land. 

As  usual,  the  letter  proper  begins  with  the  statement  that 
the  writer  is  well  acquainted  with  the  history  and  fortunes 
of  the   Thyatiran    Church.     The   brief  first   statement   is 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira     335 

entirely  laudatory.  "  I  know  thy  works,  and  thy  love  and 
faith  and  ministry  and  patience,  and  that  thy  last  works 
are  more  than  the  first."  Whereas  Ephesus  had  fallen 
away  from  its  original  spirit  and  enthusiasm,  Thyatira  had 
grown  more  energetic  as  time  elapsed. 

But  after  this  complimentary  opening,  the  letter  denounces 
the  state  of  the  Thyatiran  Church  in  the  most  outspoken 
and  unreserved  way.  It  had  permitted  and  encouraged 
the  Nicolaitan  doctrine,  and  harboured  the  principal  ex- 
ponent of  that  teaching  in  the  Province. 

We  observe  here,  first  of  all,  that  the  Nicolaitan  doctrine 
had  not  caused  any  falling  off  in  the  good  deeds  of  the 
Church.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  probably  the  emulation 
between  the  two  parties  or  sections  of  the  Church,  and  the 
desire  of  the  Nicolaitans  to  show  that  they  were  quite  as 
fervent  in  the  faith  as  the  simpler  Christians  whose  opinions 
they  desired  to  correct,  that  caused  the  improvement  in 
the  "works"  of  the  Thyatiran  Church.  We  recognise 
that  it  was  quite  possible  for  Nicolaitans  to  continue  to 
cherish  "  love  and  faith  and  ministry  and  patience,"  and  to 
improve  in  the  active  performance  of  the  practical  work 
of  a  congregation  (among  which  public  charities  ^  and  sub- 
scriptions were  doubtless  an  important  part).  Public  sub- 
scriptions for  patriotic  and  religious  purposes  were  common 
in  the  Graeco-Roman  world  ;  the  two  classes  were  almost 
equivalent  in  ancient  feeling ;  all  patriotic  purposes  took  a 
religious  form,  and  though  only  the  religious  purpose  is  as 
a  rule  mentioned  in  the  inscriptions  in  which  such  contri- 
butions are  recorded,  the  real  motive  in  most  cases  was 
patriotic,  and  the  custom  of  making  such  subscriptions  was 
undoubtedly  kept  up  by  the  Christian  Church  generally 
(see  Acts  xi.  29,  xxiv.  17,  i  Cor.  xvi.  i,  2,  2  Cor.  ix.  1-5), 


336     XXIV.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira 

The  Thyatiran  Nicolaitans,  true  to  their  cherished  prin- 
ciple of  assimilating  the  Church  usage  as  far  as  possible  to 
the  character  of  existing  society,  would  naturally  encourage 
and  maintain  the  custom.  It  makes  this  letter  more  cred- 
ible in  other  points,  that  in  this  one  it  cordially  admits 
and  praises  the  generosity  of  the  whole  Thyatiran  Church, 
including  the  Nicolaitans. 

It  seems  therefore  to  be  beyond  all  doubt  that,  as  a  rule, 
the  Nicolaitans  of  Thyatira,  with  the  prophetess  as  their 
leader,  were  still  active  and  unwearied  members  of  the 
Church,  "  full  of  good  works,"  and  respected  by  the  whole 
congregation  for  their  general  character  and  way  of  life. 
The  sentiment  entertained  with  regard  to  them  by  the 
congregation  is  attested  by  the  letter:  "  Thou  sufferest 
the  woman  Jezebel,  which  calleth  herself  a  prophetess,  and 
she  teacheth ".  It  is  evident  that  the  lady  who  is  here  so 
rudely  referred  to  was  generally  accepted  in  Thyatira  as  a 
regular  teacher,  and  as  a  prophetess  and  leader  in  the 
Church.  There  was  no  serious,  general,  active  opposition 
to  her  ;  and  therein  lay  the  fault  of  the  whole  congregation  ; 
she  had  firmly  established  herself  in  the  approval  of  the 
congregation  ;  and,  as  we  have  seen,  she  was  so  respected 
because  by  her  liberal  and  zealous  and  energetic  life  she 
had  deserved  the  public  esteem.  She  was  evidently  an 
active  and  managing  lady  after  the  style  of  Lydia,  the 
Thyatiran  merchant  and  head  of  a  household  at  Philippi  ;^ 
and  it  is  an  interesting  coincidence  that  the  only  two 
women  of  Thyatira  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament  are 
so  like  one  another  in  character.  The  question  might  even 
suggest  itself  whether  they  may  not  be  the  same  person, 
since  Lydia  seems  to  disappear  from  Philippian  history  (so 
far  as  we  are  informed  of  it)  soon  after  St.  Paul's  visit  to 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in   Thyatira     Ty-^"] 

the  city.  But  this  question  must  undoubtedly  be  answered 
in  the  negative,  for  it  is  utterly  improbable  that  the  hostess 
of  St.  Paul  would  ever  be  spoken  about  so  mercilessly  and 
savagely  as  this  poor  prophetess  is  here.  The  prophetess 
furnishes  just  one  more  example  of  the  great  influence 
exerted  by  women  in  the  primitive  Church. 

The  extremely  bitter  and  almost  virulent  tone  in  which 
the  prophetess  is  spoken  of  seems,  therefore,  not  to  be  due 
to  her  personal  character,  but  to  be  caused  entirely  by  the 
principles  which  she  set  forth  in  a  too  persuasive  and  suc- 
cessful way:  she  was  exercising  an  unhealthy  influence, 
and  her  many  excellent  qualities  made  her  the  more  dan- 
gerous, because  they  increased  the  authority  of  her  words. 
At  the  present  day,  when  we  love  milder  manners  and  are 
full  of  allowance  for  difference  of  opinion  and  conduct  in 
others,  the  harshness  with  which  disapproval  is  here  ex- 
pressed must  seem  inharmonious  and  repellent.  But  the 
writer  was  influenced  by  other  ways  of  thinking  and  differ- 
ent principles  of  action  ;  and  we  should  not  estimate  either 
him  or  the  prophetess  by  twentieth  century  standards. 

It  may  be  added  that  I  have  read  more  than  once  Pro- 
fessor E.  Schiirer's  paper  on  the  Thyatiran  Jezebel — at 
first  with  admiration  and  interest,  but  with  growing  dis- 
satisfaction during  subsequent  thought,  until  in  a  final  closer 
study  of  the  whole  Seven  Letters  it  seems  to  me  to  be 
entirely  mistaken  in  its  whole  line  of  interpretation.  He 
finds  in  "  Jezebel  "  a  prophetess  and  priestess  of  the  temple 
of  a  Chaldaean  Sibyl  in  Thyatira,  where  a  mixture  of  pagan 
rites  with  Jewish  ideas  was  practised. 

It  is  unnecessary  here  to  dilate  on  the  importance  of 
the  order  of  prophets  in  the  primitive  Church  ;  but  we 
should  be  glad  to  know  more  about  this  Thyatiran  pro- 

22 


338     XXIV.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira 

phetess,  a  person  of  broad  views  and  reasonable  mind, 
who  played  a  prominent  part  in  a  great  religious  move- 
ment, and  perished  defeated  and  decried.  She  ranks  with 
the  Montanist  prophetesses  of  the  second  century,  or  the 
Cappadocian  prophetess  about  whom  Firmilian  wrote  to 
Cyprian  in  the  third  century ;  one  of  those  leading  women 
who  seem  to  have  emphasised  too  strongly  one  side  of  a 
case,  quite  reasonable  in  itself,  through  failure  to  see  the 
other  side  sufficiently.  They  all  suffer  the  hard  fate  of 
being  known  only  through  the  mouth  of  bitter  enemies, 
whose  disapproval  of  their  opinions  was  expressed  in  the 
harsh,  opprobrious,  half- figurative  language  of  ancient  moral 
condemnation.  Thus  for  the  most  part  they  are  stigma- 
tised as  persons  of  the  worst  character  and  the  vilest 
life. 

We  take  a  much  more  favourable  view  of  the  character  of 
the  lady  of  Thyatira  than  the  commentators  usually  do. 
Thus  Mr.  Anderson  Scott  speaks  of  her  teaching  as  "  en- 
couragement to  licentiousness,"  and  of  the  "  libertinism 
which  was  taught  and  practised  in  Thyatira "  ;  and  she  is 
generally  regarded  as  entirely  false,  abandoned  and  im- 
moral in  her  life  and  her  teaching.  This  usual  view  is 
founded  mainly  on  the  misinterpretation  of  ii.  22,  which 
will  be  explained  in  the  sequel.  It  seems  to  us  to  miss 
completely  the  real  character  and  the  serious  nature  of  the 
question  which  was  being  agitated  at  the  time,  and  which 
probably  was  finally  determined  and  set  at  rest  by  the 
decision  stated  in  the  Seven  Letters  and  in  the  oral  teach- 
ing of  the  author.  In  this  and  various  other  so-called 
"  heresies  "  the  right  side  was  not  so  clear  and  self-evident 
as  it  is  commonly  represented  in  the  usual  popularly  ac- 
cepted histories  of  the  Church  and  commentaries  on   the 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in   Thyatira     339 

ancient  authorities.  The  prophetess  was  not  all  evil — 
that  idea  is  absolutely  contradictory  of  the  already  quoted 
words  of  the  letter,  ii.  19 — and  the  opposite  party  had  no 
monopoly  of  the  good  in  practical  life. 

The  strong  language  of  ii.  20,  21  is  due  in  part  to  the 
common  symbolism  found  in  the  Old  Testament  and 
elsewhere,  describing  the  lapses  of  Israel  into  idolatry  as 
adultery  and  gross  immorality.  But  in  greater  measure  it 
is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  idolatrous  ritual  of  paganism 
was  always  in  practice  associated  with  immoral  customs 
of  various  kinds  ;  that,  although  a  few  persons  of  higher 
mind  and  nobler  nature  might  perhaps  recognise  that  the 
immorality  was  not  an  essential  part  of  the  pagan  ritual, 
but  was  due  to  degeneracy  and  degradation,  it  was  im- 
possible to  dissociate  the  one  from  the  other ;  and  that  the 
universal  opinion  of  pagan  society  accepted  as  natural  and 
justifiable  and  right — if  not  carried  to  ruinous  extremes — 
such  a  way  of  life,  with  such  relations  between  the  sexes, 
as  Christianity  and  Judaism  have  always  stigmatised  as 
vicious,  degrading,  and  essentially  wrong.  The  principles 
of  the  Xicolaitans  seemed  to  St.  John  certain  to  lead  to  an 
acquiescence  in  this  commonly  accepted  standard  of  pagan 
society,  and  he  held  that  the  Nicolaitan  prophetess  was 
responsible  for  all  that  followed  from  her  teaching.  That 
he  was  right  no  one  can  doubt  who  studies  the  history  of 
Greek  and  Roman  and  West  Asiatic  paganism  as  a  practical 
force  in  human  life.  That  there  were  lofty  qualities  and 
some  high  ideals  in  those  pagan  religions  the  present  writer 
has  always  recognised  and  maintained  in  the  most  empha- 
tic terms  ;  but,  in  human  nature,  the  inevitable  tendency  of 
paganism  was  towards  a  low  standard  of  moral  life,  as 
has  been  set  forth    more   fully   in  an  account  of  the  Re- 


340     XXIV.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira 

ligion  of  Greece  and  Asia  Minor  in  Hastings'  Dictionary  of 
the  Bible,  vol.  v.,  pp.  109-155. 

A  third  reason  also  determined  the  author  to  employ  the 
strong  language  which  occurs  in  ii.  20.  Evidently  the  de- 
cision of  the  Apostolic  Council,  though  relating  to  a  different 
question,  dictated  the  form  which  the  author  of  the  letter 
has  employed.  That  decision  was  evidently  present  in  his 
memory  as  authoritative  on  an  allied  question ;  and  he 
alludes  to  it  in  an  easily  understood  way,  which  he  evi- 
dently expected  his  readers  to  appreciate.  He  turns  in  v, 
24  to  address  the  section  of  the  Thyatiran  Church  which 
had  not  accepted  the  Nicolaitan  teaching,  and  tells  them 
that  he  lays  no  other  burden  upon  them.  The  burden 
which  has  been  already  imposed  on  all  Christians  by  the 
Council  is  sufficient,  "  These  necessary  things,  that  ye  abstain 
from  things  sacrificed  to  idols  .  .  .  and  from  fornication " 
(Acts  XV.  28).  The  expression,  "  no  other  burden^'  implies 
that  the  necessary  minimum  burden  is  already  before 
the  writer's  mind,  and  that  he  assumes  it  to  be  also  be- 
fore the  readers'  mind  ;  he  assumes  that  the  readers  have 
already  caught  the  allusion  in  ii.  20,  "  She  teacheth  and 
seduceth  my  servants  to  commit  fornication  and  to  eat 
things  sacrificed  to  idols"  i.e.,  she  teaches  them  to  violate 
the  fundamental  rule  of  the  Apostolic  Council.  But,  as  he 
implies,  while  this  minimum  burden  must  be  borne  and 
cannot  be  avoided  by  any  sophistry  and  skilful  religious 
casuistry — which  the  Nicolaitans  regarded  as  high  tran- 
scendental conception  of  the  things  of  God,  but  which  is 
really  "the  cryptic  lore  and  deep  lies  of  the  devil" — he 
imposes  on  them  no  further  burden.  This  is  sufficient,  but 
it  is  inevitable  :  there  is  no  more  to  be  said.  The  Nicolaitans 
explain  this  away,  and  thereby  condemn  themselves. 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in   Thyatira     341 

I  have  assumed  hitherto  that  the  true  reading  is  "  the 
woman  Jezebel,"  as  in  R.V.  and  A.V. ;  but  with  Alford  I 
think  it  probable  that  the  proper  text  is  Tr)v  f^waiKa  aov, 
where  the  form  which  commonly  is  equivalent  to  "thy 
wife"  is  used  symbolically  to  indicate  a  specially  prominent 
woman  in  the  Thyatiran  Church,  "  the  woman  of  thine ". 
There  was  a  great  temptation  to  drop  out  aov,  in  order  to 
avoid  the  apparent  incongruity  of  calling  Jezebel  the  wife  of 
the  Church ;  and  there  was  no  reason  for  its  insertion,  if  it 
had  not  originally  had  a  place  in  the  text.  As  we  under- 
stand the  context,  the  addition  of  aov  only  expresses  more 
emphatically  a  meaning  which  lies  in  the  passage  as  a  whole, 
even  when  aov  is  omitted. 

The  following  sentences  are  the  one  main  source  of  all 
the  little  we  can  gather  about  the  Nicolaitan  principles. 
The  allusions  in  the  Pergamenian  letter,  obscure  in  them- 
selves, become  more  intelligible  when  read  in  connec.ion 
with  the  words  here.  The  obscurity  is  due  to  our  ignor- 
ance of  what  was  familiar  to  the  original  Asian  readers. 
They  were  living  through  these  questions,  and  caught  every 
allusion  and  hint  that  the  writer  of  the  letter  makes. 

The  questions  wliich  are  here  treated  belong  to  an  early 
period  in  the  history  of  the  Church.  They  are  connected 
with  the  general  conduct  of  pagan  converts  in  the  Church. 
How  much  should  be  required  of  them  ?  What  burdens 
should  be  imposed  on  them  ?  The  principles  that  should 
regulate  their  conduct  are  here  regarded,  of  course,  from 
the  point  of  view  of  their  relation  to  the  ;_:eneral  society  of 
the  cities  in  which  they  lived.  They  had  for  the  most  part 
been  members,  and  some  of  them  leading  members,  of  that 
society  before  their  conversion.  We  may  here  leave  out  of 
sight   the  Christianised   Jews  in  the  Asian  congregations, 


342     XXIV.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira 

who  had  in  a  way  been  outside  of  ordinary  pagan  society 
from  the  beginning;  for,  though  they  were  a  part,  and 
possibly  even  an  influential  part,  of  the  Church,  yet  the 
Seven  Letters  were  not  intended  specially  for  them,  and 
hardly  touch  the  questions  that  most  intimately  concerned 
them.  These  letters  are  addressed  to  pagan  converts,  and 
set  forth  in  a  figurative  way  the  principles  that  they  should 
follow  in  their  relations  with  ordinary  society  and  the 
Roman  State. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  relation  of  the  pagan  converts 
to  Judaism  is  hardly  alluded  to  in  the  Seven  Letters. 
That  question  was  now  past  and  done  with ;  the  final 
answer  had  been  given  ;  there  was  no  need  for  further  in- 
structions about  it.  In  practice,  of  course,  the  relation 
between  Jewish  Christians  and  pagan  converts  continued 
to  exist  in  the  congregations ;  but  the  general  principles 
were  now  admitted,  and  were  of  such  a  kind  as  to  place  an 
almost  impassable  barrier  between  the  national  Jews  and 
the  Church.  To  the  writer  of  the  Seven  Letters,  the  Jews 
were  the  sham  Jews,  " the  synagogue  of  Satan"  according 
to  a  twice  repeated  expression  :  God  had  turned  away  from 
them,  and  had  preferred  the  pagan  converts,  who  now  were 
the  true  seed  of  Abraham  :  the  sham  Jews  would  have  to 
recognise  the  facts,  accept  the  situation,  and  humble  them- 
selves before  the  Gentile  Christians  :  "  Behold^  I  give  of  the 
Synagogue  of  Satan,  of  them  which  say  they  are  fews  and 
they  are  not,  but  speak  falsely ;  behold  I  will  make  them  to 
come  and  worship  before  thy  feet,  and  to  know  that  I  have 
loved  thee".  Thus  the  situation  in  the  Church  was  de- 
veloped now  far  beyond  what  it  had  been  in  the  time  of 
St.  Paul :  and  his  settlement  of  the  Jewish  question  had 
been  accepted  completely  by  the  Church,  and  is  stated  as 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira     343 

emphatically  and  aggressively  here  by  this  Jewish  writer 
as  by  Paul  himself. 

It  is  unnecessary  here  to  repeat  the  elaborate  discussion 
of  this  subject  which  is  given  in  the  Expositor^  present  series, 
vol.  ii.,  pp.  429-444;  vol.  iii.,  pp.  93-1 10.  There  some  of 
the  many  difficulties  are  described  which  presented  them- 
selves every  day  to  the  converts  from  paganism.  It  was 
accepted  on  all  hands  that  they  were  to  continue  to  live  in 
the  world,  and  were  not  to  seek  to  withdraw  entirely  out 
of  it  (i  Cor.  V.  10).  There  were  certain  accepted  customs, 
rules  of  politeness  and  courtesy,  ways  of  living  and  acting, 
which  were  recommended  by  their  gracious,  refined,  ele- 
gant character,  and  other  ways  which  without  any  special 
gracefulness  were  recommended  simply  because  they  were 
the  ordinary  methods  of  behaviour.  If  we  live  in  a  long- 
established  and  cultivated  society,  we  must  do  many 
things,  not  because  we  specially  approve  of  them,  or  derive 
pleasure  or  advantage  of  any  kind  from  them,  but  simply 
from  consideration  for  the  feelings  of  others,  who  expect  us 
to  do  as  the  rest  of  society  does.  There  are  even  some 
things  which  we  hardly  quite  approve ;  and  yet  we  do  not 
feel  that  we  ought  to  condemn  them  openly,  or  withdraw 
in  a  marked  way  from  social  gatherings  where  they  are 
practised.  Such  extremely  strict  carrying  out  of  our  own 
principles  would  quickly  become  harsh,  rude,  and  misan- 
thropic ;  and  would  justly  expose  any  one  who  was  often 
guilty  of  it  to  the  charge  of  self-conceit  and  spiritual  pride. 

How  much  might  one  accept ;  and  what  must  one 
condemn  ?  Such  questions  as  these  were  daily  presenting 
themselves  to  the  Christians  in  the  Graeco- Roman  cities ; 
and  they  were  then  almost  invariably  complicated  by  the 
additional  difficulty  that  all  established  usages,  social  cus- 


344     XXIV.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira 

toms,  rules  of  polite  conduct,  forms  of  graceful  courtesy, 
were  (with  rare  exceptions)  implicated  in  and  coloured  by 
idolatrous  associations.  Grace  belore  meat,  thanksgiving 
after  food,  were  in  the  strictest  sense  slight  acts  of  ac- 
knowledgment of  the  kindness  and  the  rights  of  pagan 
divinities.  Such  ceremonies  had  often  become  mere  forms, 
and  those  who  complied  with  those  customs  were  often 
hardly  conscious  of  the  religious  character  of  the  action. 
How  far  was  the  Christian  bound  to  take  notice  of  their 
idolatrous  character  and  to  avoid  acting  in  accordance  with 
them,  or  even  to  express  open  disapproval  of  them  ?  So 
far  as  we  can  gather,  the  rule  laid  down  by  St.  Paul,  and 
the  practice  of  the  Church,  was  that  only  in  quite  excep- 
tional, rare  cases  should  open  disapproval  of  the  customs 
of  society  be  expressed  ;  in  many  cases,  where  the  idolatrous 
connection  was  not  obvious,  but  only  veiled  or  remote,  the 
Christian  might  (and  perhaps  even  ought  to)  comply  with 
the  usual  forms,  unless  his  attention  was  expressly  called 
by  any  one  of  the  guests  to  the  idolatrous  connection  ;  in 
that  case  the  rude  remark  was  equivalent  to  a  challenge 
to  deny  or  affirm  boldly  his  religion,  and  the  Christian 
must  affirm  his  religion,  and  refuse  compliance.  Also, 
where  the  idolatrous  character  of  the  act  was  patent  and 
generally  recognised,  the  Christian  must  refuse  compliance. 
Hence  there  was  a  general  tendency  among  the  Christians 
to  avoid  situations,  offices,  and  paths  of  life,  in  which  the 
performance  of  idolatrous  ceremonial  was  necessary  ;  and 
on  this  account  they  were  generally  stigmatised  as  morose, 
hostile  to  existing  society,  and  deficient  in  active  patriotism, 
if  not  actually  disloyal. 

Besides  these  slighter  cases,  there  were  many  of  a  much 
more   serious   character.      The   Roman    soldier,  marching 


The  Letter  to  the  Chnj'ch  in   Thyatira     345 

under  the  colours  of  his  regiment,  was  marching  under 
the  standard  of  idolatry,  for  the  standards  {signa)  were 
all  divine,  and  worship  was  paid  to  them  by  the  soldiers 
as  a  duty  of  the  service,  and  all  contained  one  or  more 
idolatrous  symbols  or  representations ;  moreover  he  was 
frequently  required,  standing  in  his  place  in  the  ranks,  to 
take  part  in  idolatrous  acts  of  worship.  The  soldier  could 
not  retire  and  take  to  some  other  way  of  life,  for  he  was 
bound  to  the  service  through  a  long  term  of  years.  Here, 
again,  the  rule  and  practice  of  the  Church  seems  to  have 
been  that  in  ordinary  circumstances  the  converted  soldier 
should  remain  passive,  and  as  far  as  possible  silent,  during 
the  ceremony  at  which  he  was  compulsorily  present,  but 
should  not  actively  protest.  A  similar  practice  was  en- 
couraged by  the  Church  in  other  departments  of  life  and 
work.  But  in  every  case,  and  in  every  profession,  the 
Christian,  who  in  ordinary  circumstances  might  remain 
passive  and  unprotesting,  was  liable  to  be  pointedly 
challenged  as  to  whether  he  would  willingly  perform  this 
act  of  worship  of  the  deity  whom  he  considered  false.  In 
case  of  such  a  challenge,  there  was  only  one  course  open. 
The  Christian  could  not  comply  with  a  demand  which 
was  expressly  made  a  test  of  his  faith. 

But  apart  from  those  many  doubtful  cases  where  the 
right  line  of  conduct  was  difficult  to  determine  and  might 
vary  according  to  circumstances,  there  was  a  large  number 
of  cases  in  which  the  decision  of  the  early  leaders  of 
the  Church  was  absolute  and  unvarying.  In  whatsoever 
society,  or  company,  or  meeting,  or  ceremonial,  the  condi- 
tion of  presence  and  membership  lay  in  the  performance  of 
pagan  ritual  as  an  express  and  declared  act  of  religion,  the 
Christian  must  have  no  part  or  lot,  and  could  not  accept 


346     XXIV.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira 

membership  or  even  be  present.  Here  the  Nicolaitans  took 
the  opposite  view,  and  could  defend,  their  opinion  by  many 
excellent,  thoroughly  reasonable  and  highly  philosophic  ar- 
guments. To  illustrate  this  class  of  cases,  we  may  take  an 
example  of  a  meeting  which  was  permissible,  and  of  one 
which  was  not,  according  to  the  opinion  of  those  early 
leaders  of  the  Church.  A  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  a  city 
for  political  purposes  was  always  inaugurated  by  pagan 
ritual,  and  according  to  the  strict  original  theory  the  citizens 
in  this  political  assembly  were  all  united  in  the  worship  of 
the  patron  national  deity  in  whose  honour  the  opening 
ceremonies  were  performed  ;  but  the  ritual  had  long  be- 
come a  mere  form,  and  nobody  was  in  practice  conscious 
that  the  condition  of  presence  in  the  assembly  lay  in  the 
loyal  service  of  the  national  deity.  The  political  condition 
was  the  only  one  that  was  practically  remembered :  every 
member  of  a  city  tribe  had  a  right  to  be  present  and  vote. 
The  Christian  citizen  might  attend  and  vote  in  such  a 
meeting,  ignoring  and  passing  in  silence  the  opening  re- 
ligious ceremony. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  were  numerous  societies 
for  a  vast  variety  of  purposes,  the  condition  of  membership 
in  which  was  professedly  and  explicitly  the  willingness  to 
engage  in  the  worship  of  a  pagan  deity,  because  the  society 
met  in  the  worship  of  that  deity,  the  name  of  the  society 
was  often  a  religious  name,  and  the  place  of  meeting  was 
dedicated  to  the  deity,  and  thus  was  constituted  a  temple 
for  his  worship.  The  Epistles  of  Paul,  Peter,  Jude,  and 
the  Seven  Letters,  all  touch  on  this  topic,  and  all  are 
agreed :  the  true  Christian  cannot  be  a  member  of  such 
clubs  or  societies.  The  Nicolaitans  taught  that  Christians 
ought  to  remain  members  ;  and  doubtless  added  that  they 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira     347 

would  exercise  a  good  influence  on  the  societies  by 
continuing  in  them. 

This  very  simple  and  practical  explanation  will,  doubt- 
less, seem  to  many  scholars  to  be  too  slight  for  the  serious 
treatment  that  the  subject  receives  in  the  two  letters  which 
we  are  studying.  Such  scholars  regard  grave  matters  of 
dogma  as  being  the  proper  subject  for  treatment  in  the 
early  Christian  document ;  they  will  probably  ridicule  the 
suggestion  that  the  question,  whether  a  Christian  should  join 
a  club  or  not,  demanded  the  serious  notice  of  an  apostle, 
and  declare  that  this  was  the  sort  of  question  on  which  the 
Church  kept  an  open  mind,  and  left  great  liberty  to  indi- 
viduals to  act  as  they  thought  right  (just  as  they  did  in 
regard  to  military  service,  magistracies,  and  other  important 
matters) ;  and  they  will  require  that  Nicolaitanism  should 
be  regarded  from  a  graver  dogmatic  point  of  view.  The 
present  writer  must  confess  that  those  graver  subjects  of 
dogma  seem  to  him  to  have  been  much  over-estimated ;  it 
was  not  dogma  that  moved  the  world,  but  life.  Frequently, 
when  rival  parties  and  rival  nations  fought  with  one  another 
as  to  which  of  two  opposed  dogmas  was  the  truth,  they  had 
been  arrayed  against  one  another  by  more  deep-seated  and 
vital  causes,  and  merely  inscribed  at  the  last  the  dogmas  on 
their  standards  or  chose  them  as  watchwords  or  symbols. 
We  are  tired  of  those  elaborate  discussions  of  the  fine,  wire- 
drawn, subtle  distinctions  between  sects,  and  those  elabor- 
ate discussions  of  the  principles  involved  in  heresies,  and  we 
desire  to  see  the  real  differences  in  life  and  conduct  receive 
more  attention. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  show  how  important  in  practical 
life  was  this  question  as  to  the  right  of  Christians  to  be 
members  of  social  clubs.     The  clubs  were  one  of  the  most 


348     XXIV.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira 

deep-rooted  customs  of  Graeco-Roman  society :  some  were 
social,  some  political,  some  for  mutual  benefit,  but  all  took 
a  religious  form.  New  religions  usually  spread  by  means  of 
such  clubs.  The  clubs  bound  their  members  closely  together 
in  virtue  of  the  common  sacrificial  meal,  a  scene  of  enjoy- 
ment following  on  a  religious  ceremony.  They  represented 
in  its  strongest  form  the  pagan  spirit  in  society ;  and  they 
were  strongest  among  the  middle  classes  in  the  great  cities, 
persons  who  possessed  at  least  some  fair  amount  of  money 
and  made  some  pretension  to  education,  breeding  and  know- 
ledge of  the  world.  To  hold  aloof  from  the  clubs  was  to  set 
oneself  down  as  a  mean-spirited,  grudging,  ill-conditioned 
person,  hostile  to  existing  society,  devoid  of  generous  im- 
pulse and  kindly  neighbourly  feeling,  an  enemy  of  mankind. 

The  very  fact  that  this  subject  was  treated  (as  we  have 
seen)  so  frequently,  shows  that  the  question  was  not  easily 
decided,  but  long  occupied  the  attention  of  the  Church  and 
its  leaders.  It  was  almost  purely  a  social  and  practical 
question ;  and  no  subject  presents  such  difficulties  to  the 
legislator  as  one  which  touches  the  fabric  of  society  and 
the  ordinary  conduct  of  life.  In  l  Cor.  (as  was  pointed 
out  in  the  Expositor,  loc.  cit.,  ii.,  p.  436)  the  subject,  though 
not  formally  brought  before  St.  Paul  for  decision,  was 
practically  involved  in  a  question  which  was  submitted 
to  him  ;  but  he  did  not  impose  any  absolute  prohibition ; 
and  he  tried  to  place  the  Corinthians  on  a  higher  plane 
of  thought  so  that  they  might  see  clearly  all  that  was 
involved  and  judge  for  themselves  rightly. 

After  this  the  question  must  have  frequently  called  for 
consideration,  and  a  certain  body  of  teaching  had  been 
formulated.  It  is  clear  that  the  Pergamenian  and  Thya- 
tiran  letters  assume  in  the  readers  the  knowledge  of  such 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira     349 

teaching  as  familiar ;  and  2  Peter  ii.  I  ff.  refers  to  the  same 
formulated  teaching  {Expositor,  loc.  cit.,  iii.,  p.  106  ff.).  This 
teaching  quoted  examples  from  Old  Testament  history  (es- 
pecially Balaam  or  Sodom  and  Gomorrah)  as  a  warning  of 
the  result  that  must  inevitably  follow  from  laxity  in  this 
matter;  it  drew  scathing  pictures  of  the  revelry,  licence 
and  intoxication  of  spirit  which  characterised  the  feasts  of 
these  pagan  religious  societies,  where  from  an  early  hour  in 
the  afternoon  the  members,  lounging  on  the  dining-couches, 
ate  and  drank  and  were  amused  by  troops  "of  singing 
and  of  dancing  slaves " ;  it  argued  that  such  periodically 
recurring  scenes  of  excitement  must  be  fatal  to  all  reason- 
able, moderate,  self-restraining  spirit.  The  steadily  growing 
body  of  formulated  moral  principles  on  the  subject  was  set 
aside  by  the  Nicolaitans,  who  taught,  on  the  contrary  (as 
is  said  in  2  Peter,  loc,  cit.),  that  men  should  have  confidence 
in  their  own  character  and  judgment,  and  who  promised  to 
set  them  free  from  a  hard  law,  while  they  were  in  reality 
enticing  back  to  lascivious  enjoyment  the  young  converts 
who  had  barely  "  escaped  the  defilements  of  the  world**. 

The  author  of  the  letters  now  before  us  depends  for  his 
effect  on  the  knowledge,  which  he  assumes  his  readers  to 
possess,  of  such  striking  pictures  as  that  in  2  Peter  of 
the  revels  accompanying  club-feasts.  Such  revels  were  not 
merely  condoned  by  pagan  opinion,  but  were  regarded  as 
a  duty,  in  which  graver  natures  ought  occasionally  to  relax 
their  seriousness,  and  yield  to  the  impulses  of  nature,  in 
order  to  return  again  with  fresh  zest  to  the  real  work  of 
h'fe.  St.  John  had  himself  often  already  set  before  his 
readers  orally  the  contrast  between  that  pagan  spirit  of  lib- 
erty and  animalism,  and  the  true  Christian  spirit ;  and  had 
counselled  the  Thyatiran  prophetess  to  wiser  principles. 


350    XXIV.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira 

Thus,  this  controversy  was  of  the  utmost  importance  in 
the  early  Church.  It  affected  and  determined,  more  than 
any  other,  the  relation  of  the  new  religion  to  the  existing 
forms  and  character  of  Graeco- Roman  city  society.  The 
real  meaning  of  it  was  this — should  the  Church  accept  the 
existing  forms  of  society  and  social  unions,  or  declare  war 
against  them  ?  And  this  again  implied  another  question 
— should  Christianity  conform  to  the  existing,  accepted 
principles  of  society,  or  should  it  force  society  to  conform 
to  its  principles?  When  the  question  is  thus  put  in  its 
full  and  true  implication,  we  see  forthwith  how  entirely 
wrong  the  Nicolaitans  and  their  Thyatiran  prophetess 
were;  we  recognise  that  the  whole  future  of  Christianity 
was  at  stake  over  this  question ;  and  we  are  struck  once 
more  with  admiration  at  the  unerring  insight  with  which 
the  Apostles  gauged  every  question  that  presented  itself 
in  the  complicated  life  of  that  period,  and  the  quick  sure 
decision  with  which  they  seized  and  insisted  on  the  essen- 
tial, and  neglected  the  accidental  and  secondary  aspects 
of  the  case.  We  can  now  understand  why  St.  John  con- 
demns that  very  worthy,  active,  and  managing,  but  utterly 
mistaken  lady  of  Thyatira  in  such  hard  and  cruel  and,  one 
had  almost  said,  unfair  language ;  he  saw  that  she  was 
fumbling  about  with  questions  which  she  was  quite  in- 
capable of  comprehending,  full  of  complacent  satisfaction 
with  her  superficial  views  as  to  the  fairness  and  reason- 
ableness of  allowing  the  poor  to  profit  by  those  quite  praise- 
worthy associations  which  did  so  much  good  (though  they 
contained  some  regrettable  features  which  might  easily  be 
ignored  by  a  philosophic  mind),  and  misusing  her  influ- 
ence, acquired  by  good  works  and  persuasive  speaking,  to 
lead  her  fellow-Christians  astray.     If  she  were  successful, 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in   Thyatira     351 

Christianity  must  melt  and  be  absorbed  into  the  Grseco- 
Roman  society,  highly  cultivated,  but  over-developed,  mor- 
bid, unhealthy,  "  fast "  (in  modern  slang).  But  she  would 
not  be  successful.  The  mind  which  could  see  the  Church's 
victory  over  the  destro3^ing  Empire  consummated  in  the 
death  of  every  Christian  had  no  fear  of  what  the  lady  of 
Thyatira  might  do,  "  I  will  kill  her  children  (z>.,  her  dis- 
ciples and  perverts)  with  death ;  and  all  the  Churches  shall 
know  that  I  am  he  which  searcheth  the  reins  and  hearts." 
Probably  "  death  "  is  here  to  be  understood  as  "  incurable 
disease,"  according  to  the  universal  belief  that  disease  (and 
especially  fever,  in  which  there  is  no  visible  affection  of 
any  organ)  was  the  weapon  of  Divine  power. 

It  was  a  hard  and  stern  discipline,  which  undoubtedly 
left  out  some  of  the  most  charming,  right  and  lovable 
sides  of  life  and  human  nature ;  but  it  may  be  doubted  if 
any  less  stem  discipline  could  have  availed  to  teach  the 
world  as  it  then  was  and  bend  it  to  the  reign  of  law.  It 
is  a  case  similar  to  that  of  Scotland  under  the  old  Cal- 
vinistic  rigime,  stern  and  hard  and  narrow ;  but  would 
any  milder  and  more  lovable  rule  ever  have  been  able  to 
tame  a  stubborn  and  self-willed  race,  among  whom  law 
had  never  before  been  able  to  establish  itself  firmly? 

And  as  to  the  prophetess,  she  had  had  long  time  to 
think  and  to  learn  wisdom  ;  the  question  had  been  agitated 
for  a  great  many  years  ;  but  she  had  learned  nothing  and 
forgotten  nothing,  and  only  clung  more  closely  to  the  policy 
of  compromising  with  idolatry.  Her  end  is  expressed  with 
a  grim  irony,  which  was  probably  far  more  full  of  mean- 
ing to  the  Thyatirans  than  to  modem  readers  :  there  are 
allusions  in  the  passage  that  escape  us.  She  should  have 
her  last  great  sacrificial  meal  at  one  of  those  associations. 


352     XXIV.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Thyatira 

"  I  set  her  on  a  dining-couch,  and  her  vile  associates  with 
her,  and  they  shall  have  opportunity  to  enjoy  great — tri- 
bulation :  unless  they  repent,  for  she  has  shown  that  she 
cannot  repent." 

Probably,  part  of  the  effect  of  this  denunciation  depends 
on  the  ancient  custom  and  usage  as  regards  women. 
Though  women  had  in  many  respects  a  position  of  con- 
siderable freedom  in  Anatolian  cities,  as  has  been  pointed 
out  by  many  writers,  yet  it  may  be  doubted  whether  ladies 
of  good  standing  took  part  in  the  club-dinners.  We  do  not 
know  enough  on  the  subject,  however,  to  speak  with  any 
confidence  ;  and  can  only  express  the  belief  that  the  status 
of  ladies  In  the  Lydian  cities  lent  point  to  this  passage. 
Possibly  thus  to  set  her  down  at  the  dinner  table  was 
equivalent  to  saying  that  in  her  own  life  she  would  show 
the  effect  of  the  principles  which  she  taught  others  to 
follow,  and  would  sit  at  the  revels  like  one  of  the  light 
women.  That  women  were  members  of  religious  asso- 
ciations (though  not,  apparently,  in  great  numbers)  is  of 
course  well  known  ;  but  that  is  only  the  beginning  of  the 
question.  What  was  their  position  and  rule  of  life  ?  How 
far  did  they  take  part  in  the  meal  and  revel  that  followed 
the  sacrifice  ?  To  these  questions  an  answer  has  yet  to  be 
discovered. 

It  may  be  regarded  as  certain  that  the  importance  oi 
the  trade-guilds  in  Thyatira  made  the  Nicolaitan  doctrine 
very  popular  there.  The  guilds  were  very  numerous  in  that 
city,  and  are  often  mentioned  in  great  variety  in  the  inscrip- 
tions. It  was,  certainly,  hardly  possible  for  a  tradesman 
to  maintain  his  business  in  Thyatira  without  belonging  to 
the  guild  of  his  trade.  The  guilds  were  corporate  bodies, 
taking  active  measures  to  protect  the  common  interests, 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in   Thyatira     353 

owning  property,  passing  decrees,  and  exercising  consider- 
able powers ;  they  also,  undoubtedly,  were  benefit  societies, 
and  in  many  respects  healthy  and  praiseworthy  associations. 
In  no  other  city  are  they  so  conspicuous.  It  was  therefore 
a  serious  thing  for  a  Thyatiran  to  cut  himself  off  from  his 
guild. 

To  the  remnant  of  the  Thyatiran  Church — those  who, 
while  suffering  the  prophetess,  and  not  showing  clearly 
that  they  "  hated  the  works  of  the  Nicolaitans,"  yet  had 
not  actively  carried  out  her  teaching  in  practice — one  word 
was  sufficient.  It  was  enough  that  they  should  follow 
the  established  principle,  and  act  according  to  the  law  as 
stated  in  the  Apostolic  Council  at  Jerusalem.  No  burden 
beyond  that  was  laid  upon  them  ;  but  that  teaching  they 
must  obey,  and  that  burden  they  must  bear,  until  the 
coming  of  the  Lord. 

Note. — A  confirmation  of  the  suggestion  made  on  p.  352  may  be  found 
in  an  inscription  just  published  in  Bulletin  de  Comsp.  Hellen.,  1904,  p.  24. 
A  leading  citizen  is  there  recorded  to  have  given  a  dinner,  as  part  of  a 
religious  ceremony,  to  all  the  male  and  female  community ;  and  the  men 
dined  in  one  temple  and  the  women  in  another. 


23 


CHAPTER  XXV. » 

SARDIS :  THE  CITY  OF  DEATH. 

Sardis  was  one  of  the  great  cities  of  primitive  history :  in 
the  Greek  view  it  was  long  the  greatest  of  all  cities.  At 
the  beginning  of  record  it  stands  forth  prominently  as  the 
capital  of  a  powerful  empire.  Its  situation  marks  it  out 
as  a  ruling  city,  according  to  the  methods  of  early  warfare 
and  early  kings ;  it  was  however  more  like  a  robber's 
stronghold  than  an  abode  of  civilised  men  ;  and  in  a  peace- 
ful and  civilised  age  its  position  was  found  inconvenient. 
In  the  Roman  period  it  was  almost  like  a  city  of  the  past, 
a  relic  of  the  period  of  barbaric  warfare,  which  lived  rather 
on  its  ancient  prestige  than  on  its  suitability  to  present 
conditions. 

The  great  plain  of  the  Hermus  is  bounded  on  the  south 
by  the  broad  ridge  of  Mount  Tmolus,  which  reaches  from 
the  main  mass  of  the  Central  Anatolian  plateau  like  an 
arm  extended  westwards  towards  the  sea.  In  front  of 
the  mountains  stretch  a  series  of  alluvial  hills,  making  the 
transition  from  the  level  plain  to  the  loftier  ridge  behind. 
On  one  of  those  hills  stood  Sardis.  The  hills  in  this 
neighbourhood  are  of  such  a  character  that  under  the  in- 
fluences of  the  atmosphere  each  assumes  the  form  of  a 
small  elongated  plateau  having  very  steep  sides,  terminat- 
ing towards  the  north  in  a  sharp  point,  and  on  the  south 
joined  by  a  neck  to  the  main  mass  of  Tmolus.     One  of  those 

(3H) 


Sardis :  the  City  of  Death  355 

small  elevated  plateaux  formed  the  site  of  the  original 
Sardis,  an  almost  impregnable  fortress  already  as  it  came 
from  the  hand  of  nature  without  any  artificial  fortification. 
Only  a  small  city  could  be  perched  on  the  little  plateau  ; 
but  in  the  primitive  time,  when  Sardis  came  into  existence, 
cities  were  small.     Plate  X. 

It  was  actually  inaccessible  except  at  one  point,  viz.^ 
the  neck  of  land  on  the  south,  which  still  offers  the  only 
approach.  On  all  other  sides  the  rock  walls  were  smooth, 
nearly  perpendicular,  and  absolutely  unscalable  even  with- 
out a  defender  (except  in  rare  conditions  described  in  the 
sequel).  The  local  myth  expressed  the  facts  in  a  religious 
form  by  saying  that  the  ancient  Lydian  King,  Meles,  carried 
a  lion,  the  symbol  of  Sardis  and  type  of  the  oldest  Lydian 
coins,  round  the  whole  city  except  at  one  point.  The  story 
is  told  by  Herodotus,  i.,  84  ;  but  he  (or  a  glossator)  has 
given  an  incorrect  explanation,  to  the  effect  that  Meles 
thought  it  unnecessary  to  carry  the  lion  round  the  southern 
side  of  the  city,  because  there  it  was  precipitous.  The  exact 
opposite  was  the  case :  the  only  approach  to  the  old  city 
must  have  been  from  the  beginning  and  must  always  be 
on  the  south.  The  story  is  a  popular  explanation  of  the 
fact  that  the  south  alone  was  accessible  and  not  precipitous. 

This  southern  approach  is  far  from  being  easy.  It  is  a 
tedious  and  difficult  climb  at  the  present  day,  when  the 
hill-sides  are  overgrown  with  thorns,  and  only  a  sheep-track 
exists  in  place  of  a  path.  Even  when  the  summit  was 
inhabited  and  a  carefully  made  road  led  up  to  the  southern 
gates,  the  approach  must  have  been  long  and  steep  by  a 
winding  road,  which  could  be  defended  with  perfect  CcLse. 
The  plateau  is  fully  1,500  feet  above  the  plain,  from  which 
its  sides  rise  perpendicularly. 


356  XXV.  Sardis :  the  City  of  Death 

This  small  city  on  its  lofty  plateau  was  an  ideal  strong- 
hold for  a  prince  of  primitive  times.  It  was  large  enough 
for  his  needs  ;  it  could  be  easily  fortified  and  defended  at 
the  only  point  where  fortification  or  defence  was  needed. 
It  was  like  a  watch-tower  overlooking  the  whole  of  the 
great  plain.  That  primitive  capital  of  the  Hermus  Valley 
seems  to  have  been  called,  not  Sardis  (which  was  a  plural 
noun),  but  Hyde  ;  and  it  is  mentioned  by  Homer  under 
that  name.     Plate  XI. 

In  this  we  part  company  from  the  guide  whom  usually 
we  follow  with  such  implicit  confidence,  Strabo.  He  con- 
siders that  Sardis  was  founded  later  than  the  time  of 
Homer,  because  it  is  not  named  by  him.  We  must,  how- 
ever, consider  Sardis  as  coaeval  with  the  beginnings  of  the 
Lydian  kingdom,  about  1,200  B.C.  It  was  the  princely 
capital  from  the  time  that  there  began  to  be  princes  in 
Lydia.  Nature  has  made  it  the  overseer  of  the  Hermus 
Valley ;  and  its  foundation  marked  out  its  master  for  the 
headship  first  of  that  valley,  and  thereafter  of  the  rest  of 
Lydia,  whose  fate  was  dependent  on  the  Hermus  Valley. 

As  civilisation  and  government  grew  more  complex,  and 
commerce  and  society  were  organised  on  a  greater  scale,  the 
lofty  plateau  proved  too  small  for  the  capital  of  an  empire ; 
and  a  lower  city  was  built  on  the  west  and  north  sides  of 
the  original  city,  and  probably  also  on  the  east  side. 
The  old  city  was  now  used  as  an  acropolis,  and  is  so  called 
by  Herodotus.  The  new  city  was  very  distinctly  separated 
from  the  old  by  the  great  difference  of  level  and  by  the 
long,  steep,  and  difficult  approach  at  the  southern  end  of 
the  old  city.  Hence  the  double  city  was  called  by  the 
plural  noun,  Sardeis,  like  Athenai  and  various  others. 

The  lower  city  lay  chiefly  on  the  west  side,  in  a  glen  be- 


Sardis :  the  City  of  Death  357 

tween  the  acropolis-hill  and  the  little  river  Pactolus,  which 
flows  northwards  out  of  Mount  Tmolus  to  join  the  Hermus. 
The  wealth  of  the  Lydian  kings,  ruling  in  Sardis,  which 
arose  from  trade,  a  fertile  territory  carefully  cultivated,  and 
the  commerce  of  the  East,  was  explained  in  popular  Greek 
legend  as  due  to  the  golden  sands  of  the  Pactolus.  Whether 
this  was  a  pure  fable,  or  only  an  exaggeration,  must  be  left 
uncertain.  There  was  no  gold  in  the  Pactolus  during  the 
Roman  period,  nor  is  there  any  now ;  but  it  is  said  to  be 
possible  that  the  river,  having  in  earlier  time  traversed  an 
auriferous  area,  might  have  cut  for  itself  a  path  below  the 
level  of  the  gold-bearing  rock,  and  thus  ceased  to  bring  down 
golden  sand.  No  auriferous  rock,  however,  is  now  known 
to  exist  in  the  mountains  of  Tmolus  ;  though,  of  course,  no 
proper  search  has  been  made  in  recent  centuries. 

As  the  capital  of  the  great  kingdom  of  Lydia,  Sardis  had 
a  history  marked  by  frequent  wars.  In  it  the  whole  policy 
of  a  warlike  kingdom  was  focussed.  To  fight  against  Lydia 
was  to  fight  against  Sardis.  The  master  of  Sardis  was  the 
master  of  Lydia.  Thus  in  early  centuries  Sardis  stood  forth 
pre-eminent  in  the  view  of  the  Greek  cities  as  the  Oriental 
enemy  on  whose  action  their  fate  depended.  They  were 
most  of  them  involved  in  war  with  Sardis,  and  fell  one  by 
one  beneath  its  power.  It  was  the  great,  the  wealthy,  the 
impregnable  city,  against  which  none  could  strive  and  pre- 
vail. In  the  immemorial  contest  between  Asia  and  Europe, 
it  represented  Asia,  and  the  Greek  colonies  of  the  coast-lands 
stood  for  Europe.  Sardis  was  the  one  great  enemy  of  the 
Ionian  cities .  it  learned  from  them,  taught  them,  and  con- 
quered them  all  in  succession.  Among  an  impressionable 
people  like  the  Greeks,  such  a  reputation  lived  long ;  and 
Sardis  was  to  their  mind  fully  justified  in  inscribing  on  its 


358  XXV.  Sardis :  the  City  of  Death 

coins  the  proud  title,  "  Sardis  the  First  Metropolis  of  Asia, 
and  of  Lydia,  and  of  Hellenism,"  as  in  Fig.  9,  p.  139,  The 
Hellenism  which  found  its  metropolis  in  Sardis  was  not 
the  ancient  Greek  spirit,  but  the  new  form  which  the  Greek 
spirit  had  taken  in  its  attempt  to  conquer  Asia,  profoundly 
modifying  Asia,  and  itself  profoundly  modified  in  the  pro- 
cess. Hellenism  in  this  sense  was  not  a  racial  fact,  but  a 
general  type  of  aspiration  and  aims,  implying  a  certain 
freedom  in  development  of  the  individual  consciousness  and 
in  social  and  political  organisation.  The  term  summed  up 
the  character  of  "  the  Hellenes  in  Asia,"  i.e.,  the  Hellenised 
population  of  Asia  (on  which  see  pp.  1 16,  128  fif.). 

The  destruction  of  the  powerful  kingdom,  and  the  capture 
of  the  impregnable  city,  by  a  hitherto  hardly  known  and 
utterly  despised  enemy,  was  announced  to  the  Greek  cities 
soon  after  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  B.C.  The  news 
came  almost  without  preparation,  and  was  all  the  more 
impressive  on  that  account.  To  the  student  of  the  past  it 
seems  still  to  echo  through  history,  as  one  of  the  most 
startling  and  astonishing  reverses  of  all  time.  To  the 
Greeks  it  was  unique  in  character  and  effect.  It  was  known 
that  the  Lydian  king  had  consulted  the  Delphic  Apollo 
before  he  entered  on  the  war,  and  that  he  had  begun  opera- 
tions with  full  confidence  of  victory,  relying  on  the  promise 
of  the  god.  The  Greek  mind  loved  to  dwell  on  this  topic, 
and  elaborated  it  with  creative  fancy,  so  that  the  truth  is 
almost  hidden  under  the  embellishing  details  in  the  pages 
of  Herodotus.  But  all  the  details  have  only  the  effect  (as 
was  their  intention)  of  making  more  clear  and  impressive 
the  moral  lesson.  To  avoid  over-confidence  in  self,  to  guard 
against  pride  and  arrogance,  not  to  despise  one's  enemy,  to 
bear  always  in  mind  the  slipperiness  and  deceitfulness  of 


Sardis :  the  City  of  Death  359 

fortune — such  was  the  greatest  part  of  true  wisdom,  as  the 
Greeks  understood  it ;  and  nowhere  could  the  lesson  be  found 
written  in  plainer  and  larger  letters  than  in  the  fall  of  Sardis. 

According  to  the  story  as  thus  worked  up  by  Greek 
imagination,  Croesus  the  king  had  been  vainly  warned  by 
the  wise  Greek,  Solon  the  law-giver,  when  he  visited  Sardis, 
to  beware  of  self-satisfaction  and  to  regard  no  man  as 
really  happy,  until  the  end  of  life  had  set  him  free  from  the 
danger  of  a  sudden  reverse.  In  preparing  for  his  last  war, 
Croesus  employed  all  possible  precaution  ;  he  was  thoroughly 
on  his  guard  against  any  possible  error ;  and  he  took  the 
gods  themselves  as  his  counsellors  and  helpers.  He  had 
tried  and  tested  all  the  principal  prophetic  centres  of  the 
Greek  world  ;  and  the  Delphic  Oracle  alone  had  passed  the 
test,  and  won  his  confidence. 

He  then  asked  about  the  war  against  Cyrus,  which  he 
had  in  mind ;  and  he  heard  with  delight  that,  if  he  crossed 
the  Halys,  he  would  destroy  a  mighty  Empire.  He  crossed 
the  Halys,  and  received  a  crushing  defeat.  But  it  was  only 
a  first  army  that  had  met  this  disaster.  He  returned  to 
prepare  a  greater  army  for  the  ensuing  year.  Cyrus  fol- 
lowed him  up  with  disconcerting  rapidity ;  and  besieged 
him  in  Sardis,  before  any  new  levies  were  ready.  The 
great  king,  safe  in  his  impregnable  fortress,  regarded  this 
as  an  incident  annoying  in  itself,  but  only  the  beginning 
of  destruction  for  the  rash  enemy.  The  armies  of  Lydia 
were  being  massed  to  crush  the  insolent  invader,  who 
should  be  ground  between  the  perpendicular  rocks  of  the 
acropolis  and  the  gathering  Lydian  hosts.  Such  was  the 
calculation  of  Croesus,  when  he  retired  one  evening  to  rest  : 
he  was  wakened  to  find  that  the  enemy  was  master  of  the 
acropolis  and  that  all  was  lost. 


360  XXV.  Sardis :  the  City  of  Death 

The  rock  of  the  acropolis  is  a  coarse  and  friable  con- 
glomerate, which  melts  away  gradually  under  the  influences 
of  the  atmosphere.  It  always  preserves  an  almost  perpen- 
dicular face,  but  at  times  an  oblique  crack  develops  in 
the  rock-wall,  and  permits  a  bold  climber  to  work  his 
way  up.     Such  a  weak  point  betrayed  Sardis. 

According  to  the  popular  tale  this  weak  point  existed 
from  the  beginning  of  history  in  Sardis,  because,  when 
the  divine  consecration  and  encompassing  of  the  new 
fortress  had  been  made  at  its  foundation,  this  point  had 
been  omitted  ;  thus  the  tale  would  imply  that  the  weak 
point  was  known  to  the  defenders  and  through  mere  ob- 
stinate folly  left  unguarded  by  them.  But  such  a  legend 
is  usually  a  growth  after  the  fact.  The  crumbling  character 
of  the  rock  on  which  the  upper  city  of  Sardis  stood  shows 
what  the  real  facts  must  have  been.  In  the  course  of  time 
a  weakness  had  developed  at  •  one  point  Through  want  of 
proper  care  in  surveying  and  repairing  the  fortifications, 
this  weakness  had  remained  unobserved  and  unknown  to 
the  defenders ;  but  the  assailants,  scrutinising  every  inch 
of  the  walls  of  the  great  fortress  in  search  of  an  opportu- 
nity, noticed  it  and  availed  themselves  of  it  to  climb  up, 
one  at  a  time.  On  such  a  lofty  hill,  rising  fully  1,500  feet 
above  the  plain,  whose  sides  are,  and  must  from  their 
nature  always  have  been,  steep  and  straight  and  practically 
perpendicular,  a  child  could  guard  against  an  army ;  even 
a  small  stone  dropped  on  the  head  of  the  most  skilful 
mountain-climber,  would  inevitably  hurl  him  down.  An 
attack  made  by  this  path  could  succeed  only  if  the  assailants 
climbed  up  entirely  unobserved  ;  and  they  could  not  escape 
obsei-vation  unless  they  made  the  attempt  by  night.  Hence, 
even  though  this  be  unrecorded,  a  night  attack  must  have 


Sardis :  the  City  of  Death  361 

been  the  way  by  which  Cyrus  entered  Sardis.  He  came 
upon  the  great  city  "  Hke  a  thief  in  the  night ". 

It  is  right,  however,  to  add  that  the  account  that  we 
have  given  of  the  way  in  which  Sardis  was  captured  differs 
from  the  current  opinion  in  one  point.  The  usual  view 
is  that  Cyrus  entered  Sardis  by  the  isthmus  or  neck  on 
the  south.  That  was  the  natural  and  necessary  path  in 
ordinary  use ;  the  only  road  and  gateway  were  there  ;  and 
inevitably  the  defence  of  the  city  was  based  on  a  careful 
guard  and  strong  fortification  at  the  solitary  approach.  The 
enemy  was  expected  to  attack  there  ;  but  the  point  of  the 
tale  is  that  the  ascent  was  made  on  a  side  where  no  guard 
was  ever  stationed,  because  that  side  was  believed  to  be 
inaccessible.  The  misapprehension  is  as  old  as  the  time 
of  Herodotus  (or  rather  of  some  old  Greek  glossator,  who 
has  interposed  a  false  explanation  in  the  otherwise  clear 
narrative).  The  character  of  the  rock  shows  that  this 
opinion — current  already  among  the  Greeks — is  founded 
on  a  confusion  between  the  one  regular  approach,  where 
alone  attack  was  expected  and  guarded  against,  and  the 
accidental,  unobserved,  unguarded  weak  point,  which  had 
developed  through  the  disintegration  of  the  rock. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  isthmus,  as  being  the 
solitary  regular  approach,  must  always  have  been  the  most 
strongly  fortified  part  At  present  the  plateau  is  said  not 
to  be  accessible  at  any  other  point  except  where  the  isthmus 
touches  it ;  but  there  are  several  chinks  and  clefts  leading 
up  the  north  and  west  faces,^  and  it  is  probable  that  by 
one  of  them  a  bold  and  practised  climber  could  make  his 
way  up.  These  clefts  vary  in  character  from  century  to 
century  as  the  surface  disintegrates  ;  and  all  of  them  would 
always  be  regarded  by  the  ordinary  peaceful  and  unathletic 


362  XXV.  Sardis :  the  City  of  Death 

oriental  citizen  as  inaccessible.  But  from  time  to  time 
sometimes  one,  sometimes  another,  would  offer  a  chance 
to  a  daring  mountaineer.  By  such  an  approach  it  must 
have  been  that  Cyrus  captured  the  city. 

History  repeated  itself.  The  same  thing  happened  about 
320  years  later,  when  Antiochus  the  Great  captured  Sardis 
through  the  exploit  of  Lagoras  (who  had  learned  surefooted- 
ness  on  the  precipitous  mountains  of  his  native  Crete).  Once 
more  the  garrison  in  careless  confidence  were  content  to 
guard  the  one  known  approach,  and  left  the  rest  of  the 
circuit  unguarded,  under  the  belief  that  it  could  not  be 
scaled. 

The  Sardian  religion  was  the  fullest  expression  of  the 
character  and  spirit  of  the  city ;  but  it  has  not  yet  been 
properly  understood.  The  coins  show  several  remarkable 
scenes  of  a  religious  kind,  evidently  of  purely  local  origin 
and  different  from  any  subjects  otherwise  known  in  hieratic 
mythology  ;  but  they  remain  unexplained  and  unintelligible. 
The  explanation  of  them,  if  it  could  be  discovered,  would 
probably  illuminate  the  peculiar  character  of  the  local  re- 
ligion ;  but  in  the  meantime,  although  various  other  deities 
besides  Cybele  and  Kora-Persephone  appear  on  the  coins, 
and  although  abundant  archaeological  details  might  be  de- 
scribed, no  unifying  idea  can  be  detected,  which  might  show 
how  the  Sardians  had  modified,  and  put  their  own  individual 
character  into,  the  general  Anatolian  religious  forms. 

The  general  Anatolian  temper  of  religion  is  summarised 
in  the  following  words  (taken  from  the  Cities  and  Bishop- 
rics of  Phfygia,  i.,  p.  87) :  "  Its  essence  lies  in  the  adora- 
tion of  the  life  of  Nature  —  that  life  subject  apparently 
to  death,  yet  never  dying  but  reproducing  itself  in  new 
forms,  different  and  yet  the  same.     This  perpetual   self- 


Sardis :  the  City  of  Death  363 

identity  under  varying  forms,  this  annihilation  of  death 
through  the  power  of  self-reproduction,  was  the  object  of 
an  enthusiastic  worship,  characterised  by  remarkable  self- 
abandonment  and  immersion  in  the  divine,  by  a  mixture 
of  obscene  symbolism  and  sublime  truths,  by  negation  of 
the  moral  distinctions  and  family  ties  that  exist  in  a  more 
developed  society,  but  do  not  exist  in  the  free  life  of 
Nature.  The  mystery  of  self-reproduction,  of  eternal  unity 
amid  temporary  diversity,  is  the  key  to  explain  all  the 
repulsive  legends  and  ceremonies  that  cluster  round  that 
worship,  and  all  the  manifold  manifestations  or  diverse 
embodiments  of  the  ultimate  single  divine  life  that  are 
carved  on  the  rocks  of  Asia  Minor." 

The  patron  deity  of  the  city  was  Cybele,  two  columns  of 
whose  temple  still  protrude  from  the  ground  near  the  banks 
of  the  Pactolus,  as  shown  in  Plate  XI.  She  was  a  goddess 
of  the  regular  Anatolian  type  ;  and  her  general  character  is 
well  known. 

But  the  specialised  character  of  the  Sardian  goddess 
Cybele,  the  qualities  and  attributes  which  she  gathered 
from  the  local  conditions  and  from  the  ideas  and  manners 
of  the  population,  are  unknown,  and  can  hardly  even  be 
guessed  at  for  lack  of  evidence.  To  the  Greek  mind  the 
Sardian  Cybele  seemed  more  like  the  Maiden  Proserpine 
than  the  Mother  Demeter ;  and  the  coins  of  the  city  often 
show  scenes  from  the  myth  of  Proserpine.  For  example, 
the  reverse  of  the  coin  in  Fig.  9,  p.  139,  shows  the 
familiar  scene  of  Pluto  carrying  off  Proserpine  on  his 
four-horse  car. 

The  strange  and  uncouth  idol,  under  whose  form  the 
goddess  was  worshipped,  often  appears  on  coins ;  and 
in  alliance-coins  Sardis  is  often  symbolised  by  this  gro- 


364  XXV.  Sai^dis :  the  City  of  Death 

tesque  figure,  whose  half-human  appearance  is  quite  of  the 
Anatoh'an  type.  Thus  Fig.  30  shows  an  "  alliance  "  or  re- 
ligious agreement  between  Ephesus,  represented  by  Artemis 
in  her  usual  idol  with  her  stags  at  her  side,  and  Sardis, 
symbolised  by  the  curious  veiled  image  of  her  own  goddess 
(whom  numismatists  usually  call  in  Hellenising  style  Kora 
or  Persephone), 

The  Sardian  goddess  was  the  mother  of  her  people. 
She  dwelt  with  nature,  in  the  mountains  of  Tmolus  and 
in  the  low  ground  by  the  sacred  lake  of  Koloe,  on  the 


FiQ.  30. — The  Alliance  of  Ephesus  and  Sardis. 

north  side  of  the  Plermus.  Here  by  the  lal<e  was  the 
principal  necropolis  of  Sardis,  at  a  distance  of  six  or  eight 
miles  from  the  city,  across  a  broad  river — a  remarkable  fact, 
which  points  to  some  ancient  historical  relation  between 
Sardis  and  Koloe  (implying  perhaps  that  the  people  of 
Koloe  had  been  moved  to  found  the  original  city  of  Sardis). 
Here  the  people  of  the  goddess  returned  at  death  to  lie 
close  to  the  wild  sedge-encircled  home  of  the  mother  who 
bore  them. 

The  Hon,  as  type  of  the  oldest  Lydian  coins,  was  cer* 


Sardis  :  the  City  of  Death  365 

tainly  adopted,  because  it  was  the  favourite  animal  and  the 
symbol  of  the  Sardian  goddess.  The  Anatolian  goddess, 
when  envisaged  in  the  form  of  Cybele,  was  regularly  associ- 
ated with  a  pair  of  lions  or  a  single  lion. 

Healing  power  was  everywhere  attributed  to  the  local 
embodiment  of  the  divine  idea,  but  in  Sardis  it  was  with 
exceptional  emphasis  magnified  into  the  power  of  restoring 
life  to  the  dead.  It  was,  doubtless,  associated  specially  with 
certain  hot  springs,  situated  about  two  miles  from  Sardis 
in  the  front  hills  of  Tmolus,  which  are  still  much  used  and 
famous  for  their  curative  effect.  As  the  hot  springs  are 
the  plain  manifestation  of  the  divine  subterranean  power, 
the  god  of  the  underworld  plays  a  considerable  part  in  the 
religious  legend  of  the  district.  He  appeared  to  claim 
and  carry  off  as  his  bride  the  patron-goddess  of  the  city, 
in  the  form  of  Kora-Persephone,  as  she  was  gathering  the 
golden  flower,  the  flower  of  Zeus,  in  the  meadows  near  the 
springs  ;  the  games  celebrated  in  her  honour  were  called 
Chrysanthia  ;  and  it  may  be  confidently  inferred  that  crowns 
of  the  flower  called  by  that  name  were  worn  by  her  wor- 
shippers. The  name  of  "  Zeus's  flower  "  also  is  mentioned 
on  the  coins. 

Zeus  Lydios  is  often  named  on  Sardian  coins,  embodying 
the  claim  of  the  city  to  stand  for  the  whole  country  of  Lydia 
as  its  capital.  He  is  represented  exactly  like  the  god  of 
Laodicea  (Fig,  35,  p.  418),  a  standing  figure,  wearing  a 
tunic  and  an  over-garment,  resting  his  left  hand  on  the 
sceptre,  and  holding  forth  the  eagle  on  his  right  hand. 

Sardis  suffered  greatly  from  an  earthquake  in  A.D.  17, 
and  was  treated  with  special  liberality  by  the  Emperor 
Tiberius  :  he  remitted  all  its  taxation  for  five  years,  and  gave 
it  a  donation  of  ten  million  sesterces  (about  ;^400,ooo).     In 


366  XXV.  Sardis :  the  City  of  Death 

Fig.  31,  taken  from  a  coin  struck  by  the  grateful  city,  the 
veiled  genius  of  Sardis  is  shown  kneeling  on  one  knee  in 
supplication  before  the  Emperor,  who  is  dressed  in  the  toga, 
the  garb  of  peace,  and  graciously  stretches  forth  his  hand 
towards  her.  The  coin  bears  the  name  of  Caesareian 
Sardis:  for  the  city  took  the  epithet  in  honour  of  the 
Imperial  benefactor  and  retained  it  on  coins  for  quite  a 
year  after  his  death,  and  in  inscriptions  for  as  long  as  ten 
or  fifteen  years  after  his  death. 

The  reverse  of  the  same  coin  shows  the  Imperial  mother, 


Fig.  31. — Caesareian  Sardis  a  suppliant  to  the  Emperor  Tiberius. 


the  deified  Empress  Livia,  sitting  like  a  goddess  after  the 
fashion  of  Demeter,  holding  in  her  left  hand  three  corn- 
ears,  the  gift  of  the  goddess  to  mankind,  and  resting  her 
right  hand  high  on  the  sceptre.  This  type  is  a  good  ex- 
ample of  the  tendency  to  fuse  the  Imperial  religion  with 
the  local  worship,  and  to  regard  the  Imperial  gods  as 
manifestations  and  incarnations  on  earth  of  the  divine 
figure  worshipped  in  the  district.  Livia  here  appears  in 
the  character  of  Demeter,  a  Hellenised  form  of  the  Ana- 
tolian goddess. 


Sardis :  the  City  of  Death 


2,^7 


The  assumption  of  the  epithet  Caesareia  was  doubtless 
connected  with  the  erection  of  a  temple  in  honour  of 
Tiberius  and  Livia,  as  the  divine  pair  in  the  common  form 
of  the  mother  goddess  and  her  god-son.  But  there  is  no 
reason  to  think  that  this  was  a  Provincial  temple  (which 
would  carry  with  it  for  the  city  the  title  of  Temple- Warden). 
It  was  only  a  Sardian  temple,  and  seems  to  have  been  suffered 
to  fall  into  decay  soon  after  the  death  of  the  Imperial  god. 

It  is  plain  that  the  greatness  of  Sardis  under  the  Roman 
rule  was  rooted  in  past  history,  not  in  present  conditions. 


Fig.  32. — The  Empress  Livia  as  the  goddess  who  gives  corn  and  plenty 

to  Sardis. 

The  acropolis  ceased  during  that  period  to  be  the  true  city; 
it  was  inconvenient  and  useless ;  and  it  was  doubtless  re- 
garded as  a  historical  and  archaeological  monument,  rather 
than  a  really  important  part  of  the  living  city.  Apart  from 
the  acropolis  there  is  nothing  in  the  situation  of  Sardis  to 
make  it  a  great  centre  of  society,  and  it  has  long  ceased  to 
be  inhabited.  The  chief  town  of  the  district  is  now  Salikli, 
about  five  miles  to  the  east,  in  a  similar  position  at  the  foot 
of  Tmolus,  but  more  conveniently  situated  for  travellers 
and  trade. 


368  XXV.  Sardis :  the  City  of  Death 

Thus,  when  the  Seven  Letters  were  written,  Sardis  was  a 
city  of  the  past,  which  had  no  future  before  it.  Its  great- 
ness was  connected  with  a  barbarous  and  half-organised 
state  of  society,  and  could  not  survive  permanently  in  a 
more  civilised  age.  Sardis  must  inevitably  decay.  Only 
when  civilisation  was  swept  out  of  the  Hermus  Valley  in 
fire  and  bloodshed  by  the  destroying  Turks,  and  the  age  of 
barbarism  was  re-introduced,  did  Sardis  again  become  an 
advantageous  site.  The  acropolis  was  restored  as  a  fortress 
of  the  kind  suited  for  that  long  period  of  uncertainty  and 
war  which  ended  in  the  complete  triumph  of  Moham- 
medanism and  the  practical  extermination  of  the  Christian 
population  (save  at  Philadelphia  and  Magnesia)  throughout 
the  Hermus  Valley. 

Sardis  occupied  a  high  position  in  the  Byzantine  hierarchy. 
It  was  the  capital  of  the  Province  Lydia,  instituted  about 
A.D.  295,  and  the  Bishop  of  Sardis  was  Metropolitan  and 
Archbishop  of  Lydia,  and  sixth  in  order  of  dignity  of  all 
the  bishops,  whether  Asiatic  or  European,  that  were  subject 
to  the  Patriarch  of  Constantinople. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

THE  LETTER  TO  THE  CHURCH  IN  SARDIS. 

These  things  saith  he  that  hath  the  seven  Spirits  of  God,  and  the  seven 
stars : 

I  know  thy  works,  that  thou  hast  a  name  that  thou  livest,  and  thou  art 
dead.  Be  thou  watchful,  and  stablish  the  things  that  remain,  which  were 
ready  to  die :  for  I  have  found  no  works  of  thine  fulfilled  before  my  God. 
Remember  therefore  how  thou  hast  received  and  didst  hear ;  and  keep  it, 
and  repent.  If  therefore  thou  shall  not  watch,  I  will  come  as  a  thief,  and 
thou  shall  not  know  what  hour  1  will  come  upon  thee.  But  thou  hast  a  few 
names  in  Sardis  which  did  not  defile  their  garments :  and  they  shall  walk 
with  me  in  white  ;  for  they  are  worthy. 

He  that  overcometh  shall  thus  be  arrayed  in  white  garments ;  and  I  will 
in  no  wise  blot  his  name  out  of  the  book  of  life,  and  I  will  confess  his  name 
before  my  Father,  and  before  his  angels. 

He  that  hath  an  ear^  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  to  the  churches. 

The  analogy  between  the  Ephesian  and  Sardian  letters  is 
close,  and  the  two  have  to  be  studied  together.  History 
had  moved  on  similar  lines  with  the  two  Churches.  Both 
had  begun  enthusiastically  and  cooled  down.  Degeneration 
was  the  fact  in  both ;  but  in  Ephesus  the  degeneration  had 
not  yet  become  so  serious  as  in  Sardis.  Hence  in  the 
Ephesian  letters  the  keynote  is  merely  change,  instability 
and  uncertainty ;  in  the  Sardian  letter  the  keynote  is  de- 
gradation, false  pretension  and  death. 

In  those  two  letters  the  exordium  takes  a  very  similar 

form.      To    the    Ephesian     Church    "these    things    saith 

he   that  holdeth   the    seven    stars    in    his   right  hand,   he 

that  walketh   between  the  seven  golden   lamps".     To  the 

24  (369) 


370     XXVI.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis 

Sardian  Church  the  letter  proceeds  from  him  "  that  hath 
the  seven  spirits  of  God  and  the  seven  stars  ".  The  sender 
of  both  letters  stands  forth  as  the  centre,  the  pivot  and  the 
director  of  the  Universal  Church,  and  in  particular  of  the 
entire  group  of  the  Asian  Churches,  Effective  power  exer- 
cised over  the  whole  Church  is  indicated  emphatically  in 
both  cases,  and  especially  in  the  Sardian  address.  "  The 
Seven  Spirits  of  God"  must  certainly  be  taken  as  a  sym- 
bolic or  allegorical  way  of  expressing  the  full  range  of 
exercise  of  the  Divine  power  in  the  Seven  Churches,  i.e.^ 
in  the  Universal  Church  as  represented  here  by  the  Asian 
Churches.  If  one  may  try  in  inadequate  and  rough  terms 
to  express  the  meaning,  the  "  Spirit  of  God  "  is  to  be  under- 
stood as  the  power  of  God  exerting  itself  practically  in  the 
Church ;  and,  since  the  Church  is  always  regarded  in  the 
Revelation  as  consisting  of  Seven  parts  or  local  Churches, 
the  power  of  God  is  described  in  its  relation  to  those  Seven 
parts  as  "  the  Seven  Spirits  of  God". 

This  indirect  way  of  expression  is  liable  to  become  mis- 
leading, if  it  be  not  carefully  interpreted  and  sympathetically 
understood.  It  is  forced  on  the  writer  by  the  plan  of  his 
work,  which  does  not  aim  at  philosophic  exposition,  but 
attempts  to  shadow  forth  through  sensuous  imagery  "the 
deep  things  of  God,"  in  the  style  of  the  Jewish  literary  form 
which  he  chose  to  imitate. 

Under  the  phraseology,  "  the  Seven  Spirits  of  God"  the 
writer  of  the  Revelation  conceals  a  statement  of  the  great 
problem  :  "  how  does  the  Divine  power  make  itself  effective 
in  regard  to  the  world  and  mankind,  when  it  is  entirely 
different  in  nature  and  character  from  the  ordinary  world 
of  human  experience  ?  How  can  a  thing  act  on  another 
which  is  wholly  different  in  nature,  and  lies  on  a  different 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis        371 

plane  of  existence  ?  "  The  Divine  power  has  to  go  forth, 
as  it  were,  out  of  itself  in  order  to  reach  mankind.  The 
writer  had  evidently  been  occupying  himself  with  this 
problem  ;  and,  as  we  see,  the  book  of  the  Revelation  is 
a  vague  and  dim  expression  of  the  whole  range  of  this 
and  the  associated  problems  regarding  the  relation  of  God 
to  man.  But  the  book  is  not  to  be  taken  as  a  solution  of 
the  problems.  It  is  the  work  of  a  man  who  has  not 
reached  an  answer,  i.e.^  who  has  not  yet  succeeded  in 
expressing  the  question  in  philosophic  form,  but  who  is 
struggling  to  body  forth  the  problems  before  himself  and 
his  readers  in  such  imagery  as  may  make  them  more  con- 
ceivable. 

The  most  serious  error  in  regard  to  the  book  of  the 
Revelation  consists  in  regarding  it  as  a  statement  of  the 
solution.  No  solution  is  reached  in  the  book ;  but  the 
writer's  aim  is  to  convey  to  his  readers  his  own  perfect 
confidence  that  the  Divine  nature  is  effective  on  human 
nature  and  on  the  world  of  sense,  all-powerful,  absolutely 
victorious  in  this  apparent  contest  with  evil  or  anti-Christ  • 
that  in  fact  there  is  not  really  any  contest,  for  the  victory 
is  gained  in  the  inception  of  the  conflict,  and  the  seeming 
struggle  is  only  the  means  whereby  the  Divine  power  offers 
to  man  the  opportunity  of  learning  to  understand  its  nature. 

The  Spirit  of  God,  and  still  more  "  the  Seven  Spirits  of 
God"  are  therefore  not  to  be  understood  as  a  description  of 
the  method  by  which  the  Divine  activity  exerts  itself  in  its 
relation  to  the  Church  ;  for,  if  looked  at  so,  they  are  easily 
perverted  and  elaborated  into  a  theory  of  intermediate 
powers  intervening  between  God  and  the  world,  and  thus 
there  must  arise  the  whole  system  of  angels  (which  in 
human  nature,  as  ideas  and  customs  then  tended,  inevitably 


372     XXVI.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardu 


degenerated  into  a  worship  of  angels,  according  to  Colos- 
sians  ii.  i8 ;  just  as  a  few  centuries  later  the  respect  for 
the  saints  and  martyrs  of  the  Church  degenerated  into  a 
worship  of  them  as  powers  intervening  between  man  and 
the  remote  ultimate  Divine  nature).  The  "  Seven  Spirits" 
form  simply  an  expression  suited  to  reach  the  compre- 
hension of  men  at  that  time,  and  make  them  image  to 
themselves  the  activity  of  God  in  relation  to  the  Seven 
Churches,  and  to  the  whole  Universal  Church.  That  this 
is  a  successful  attempt  to  present  the  problem  to  human 
apprehension  cannot  be  maintained.  The  book  is  the  first 
attempt  of  a  writer  struggling  to  express  great  ideas  ;  but 
the  ideas  have  not  yet  been  thought  out  clearly  in  his  mind 
and  he  has  been  led  away  to  imitate  a  rather  crude  model 
fashionable  in  Jewish  circles  at  the  time.  He  has  reached 
an  infinitely  higher  level,  alike  in  a  literary  and  a  religious 
view,  than  any  other  work  of  that  class  known  to  us ;  but 
an  ineradicable  fault  clings  to  the  whole  class. 

The  Church  of  Sardis,  then,  is  addressed  by  Him  who 
controls  and  directs  the  Divine  action  in  the  Churches  as 
they  exist  in  the  world,  and  who  holds  in  His  hand  the 
Seven  Churches,  with  their  history  and  their  destiny.  This 
expression  of  His  power  is  varied  from  that  which  occurs 
in  the  address  of  the  Ephesian  letter,  of  course  in  a  way 
suited  to  the  Sardian  Church,  though  it  is  not  easy  for  us 
to  comprehend  wherein  lies  the  precise  suitability.  As 
everywhere  throughout  this  study,  we  can  hardly  hope  to 
do  more  than  reach  a  statement  of  the  difficulties  and  the 
problems,  though  often  a  clear  statement  of  the  question 
involves  the  suggestion  of  a  reply  (and  in  so  far  as  it  does 
this  it  involves  personal  opinion  and  hypothesis,  and  is  liable 
to  fell  into  subjectivity  and  error). 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis        '^^'j^^ 

We  observed  the  peculiar  suitability  of  the  Ephesian 
address  to  the  situation  of  Ephesus  as  the  centre  and 
practical  leader  of  the  whole  group  of  Asian  Churches. 
Hence  the  final  detail  in  that  address — "  He  that  walketh 
in  the  midst  of  the  seven  golden  lamps  "  ;  for  (as  is  shown 
in  chapter  vi.)  the  lamps  symbolise  the  Churches  on  earth, 
as  the  seven  Stars  symbolise  the  seven  Churches,  or  their 
spiritual  counterparts,  in  heaven.  Instead  of  this  the  Sardian 
address  introduces  "//z^  Seven  Spirits  of  God".  A  more 
explicit  and  definite  expression  of  the  activity  of  the  Divine 
nature  in  the  Churches  on  earth  evidently  recommended 
itself  as  suitable  in  addressing  the  Sardian  Church. 

One  cannot  evade  the  question,  what  is  the  reason  why 
this  expression  commended  itself  for  the  Sardian  letter? 
wherein  lies  its  suitability?  To  answer  the  question,  it  is 
obviously  necessary  to  look  at  the  prominent  point  of 
difference  between  Sardis  and  Ephesus  (which  we  have 
already  stated).  Ephesus  had  changed  and  cooled,  but  the 
degeneration  had  not  yet  become  serious ;  restoration  of 
its  old  character  and  enthusiasm  was  still  possible.  As  a 
Church  Ephesus  might  possibly  be  in  the  future  as  great  as 
it  had  been  in  the  past.  But  the  Church  of  Sardis  was 
already  dead,  though  it  seemed  to  be  living.  Its  history 
was  past  and  done  with.  A  revivification  of  its  former  self 
was  impossible.  There  remained  only  a  few  in  it  for  whom 
there  was  some  hope.  They  might  survive,  as  they  had 
hitherto  shown  themselves  worthy.  And  they  shall  sur- 
vive, for  the  power  which  has  hitherto  sustained  them  will 
be  with  them  and  keep  them  to  the  end.  In  this  scanty 
remnant  saved  from  the  wreck  of  the  formerly  great  Church 
of  Sardis,  the  Divine  power  will  show  itself  all  the  more 
conspicuous.     Just  as  in  the  comparatively  humble  city  of 


374     XXVI.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis 

Thyatira  the  faithful  few  shall  be  granted  a  strength  and 
authority  beyond  that  of  the  Empire  and  its  armies,  so  in 
this  small  remnant  at  Sardis  the  Divine  power  will  be  most 
effective,  because  they  stand  most  in  need  of  it. 

It  is  not  to  b:;  imagined  that  this  consideration  exhausts 
the  case.  There  remains  much  more  that  is  at  present 
beyond  our  ken.  The  more  we  can  learn  about  Sardis,  the 
better  we  shall  understand  the  letter. 

In  none  of  the  Seven  Letters  is  the  method  of  the  writer, 
and  the  reason  that  guided  him  in  selecting  the  topics,  more 
clearly  displayed  than  in  the  letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis. 
The  advice  which  he  gives  to  the  Sardians  is,  in  a  way, 
universally  suitable  to  human  nature :  "  Be  watchful ;  be 
more  careful ;  carry  out  more  completely  and  thoroughly 
what  you  have  still  to  do,  for  hitherto  you  have  always 
erred  in  leaving  work  half  done  and  incomplete.  Try  to 
make  that  eager  attention  with  which  you  at  the  beginning 
listened  to  the  Gospel,  and  the  enthusiasm  with  which  at 
first  you  accepted  it,  a  permanent  feature  in  your  conduct. 
If  you  are  not  watchful,  you  will  not  be  ready  at  the 
moment  of  need  :  my  arrival  will  find  }'OU  unprepared, 
because  ^  in  an  hour  that  ye  think  not  the  Son  of  Man 
cometh ' ;  any  one  can  make  ready  for  a  fixed  hour,  but  you 
must  be  always  ready  for  an  unexpected  hour." 

Advice  like  that  is,  in  a  sense,  universal.  All  persons, 
every  individual  man  and  every  body  of  men,  constantly 
require  the  advice  to  be  watchful,  and  to  carry  through  to 
completion  what  they  once  enter  upon,  for  all  men  tend 
more  or  less  to  slacken  in  their  exertions  and  to  leave  half- 
finished  ends  of  work.  In  all  men  there  is  observable  a 
discrepancy  between  promise  and  performance ;  the  first 
show  is  almost  always  superior  to  the  final  result. 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis       375 

But  why  are  these  precise  topics  selected  for  the  Sardian 
letter,  and  not  for  any  of  the  others  ?  Why  does  the  refer- 
ence to  the  thief  in  the  night  suggest  itself  in  this  letter 
and  not  in  any  other  ?  It  is  plain  that  Ephesus  was  suffer- 
ing from  the  same  tendency  to  growing  slackness  as  Sardis, 
and  that  its  first  enthusiasm  had  cooled  down  almost  as 
lamentably  as  was  the  case  in  the  Sardian  Church.  Yet 
the  advice  to  Ephesus,  though  like  in  many  respects,  is 
expressed  in  very  different  words. 

But  in  almost  every  letter  similar  questions  suggest  them- 
selves. There  were  faithful  Christians  in  every  one  of  the 
Churches  ;  but  the  word  "  faithful "  is  used  only  of  Smyrna. 
Every  Church  was  brought  into  the  same  conflict  with  the 
Roman  State;  but  only  in  the  Pergamenian  letter  is  the 
opposition  between  the  Church  and  the  Empire  expressly 
mentioned,  and  only  in  the  Thyatiran  letter  is  the  superi- 
ority in  strength  and  might  of  the  Church  over  the  Empire 
emphasised. 

In  the  Sardian  letter  the  reason  is  unusually  clear ;  and 
to  this  point  our  attention  must  now  be  especially  directed. 

No  city  in  the  whole  Province  of  Asia  had  a  more 
splendid  history  in  past  ages  than  Sardis.  No  city  of  Asia 
at  that  time  showed  such  a  melancholy  contrast  between 
past  splendour  and  present  decay  as  Sardis.  Its  history 
was  the  exact  opposite  of  the  record  of  Smyrna.  Smyrna 
was  dead  and  yet  lived.     Sardis  lived  and  yet  was  dead. 

Sardis  was  the  great  city  of  ancient  times  and  of  half- 
historical  legend.  At  the  beginning  of  the  Greek  memory 
of  history  in  Lydia,  Sardis  stood  out  conspicuous  and  alone 
as  the  capital  of  the  great  Oriental  Empire  with  which  the 
Greek  cities  and  colonies  were  brought  in  contact.  Their 
relations  with  it  formed  the  one  great  question  of  foreign 


376     XXVI.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis 

politics  for  those  early  Greek  settlers.  Everything  else  was 
secondary,  or  was  under  their  own  control,  but  in  regard 
to  Sardis  they  had  always  to  be  thinking  of  foreign  wishes, 
foreign  rights,  the  caprice  of  a  foreign  monarch  and  the 
convenience  of  foreign  traders,  who  were  too  powerful  to 
be  disregarded  or  treated  with  disrespect. 

That  ancient  and  deep  impression  the  Asiatic  Greeks, 
with  their  tenacious  historical  memory,  never  entirely  lost. 
Sardis  was  always  to  them  the  capital  where  Croesus, 
richest  of  kings,  had  ruled — the  city  which  Solon,  wisest  of 
men,  had  visited,  and  where  he  had  rightly  augured  ruin 
because  he  had  rightly  mistrusted  material  wealth  and 
luxury  as  necessarily  hollow  and  treacherous- — the  fortress 
of  many  warlike  kings,  like  Gyges,  whose  power  was  so 
great  that  legend  credited  him  with  the  possession  of  the 
gold  ring  of  supernatural  power,  or  Alyattes,  whose  vast 
tomb  rose  like  a  mountain  above  the  Hermus  Valley  beside 
the  sacred  lake  of  the  Mother  Goddess. 

But  to  those  Greeks  of  the  coast  colonies,  Ephesus  and 
Smyrna  and  the  rest,  Sardis  was  also  the  city  of  failure, 
the  city  whose  history  was  marked  by  the  ruin  of  great 
kings  and  the  downfall  of  great  military  strength,  apparently 
in  mid-career,  when  it  seemed  to  be  at  its  highest  develop- 
ment. It  was  the  city  whose  history  conspicuously  and 
pre-eminently  blazoned  forth  the  uncertainty  of  human 
fortunes,  the  weakness  of  human  strength,  and  the  short- 
ness of  the  step  that  separates  over-confident  might  from 
sudden  and  irreparable  disaster.  It  was  the  city  whose 
name  was  almost  synonymous  with  pretensions  unjustified, 
promise  unfulfilled,  appearance  without  reality,  confidence 
that  heralded  ruin.  Reputed  an  impregnable  fortress,  it 
had  repeatedly  fallen  short  of  its  reputation,  and  ruined 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis       377 

those  who  trusted  in  it  Crcesus  had  fancied  he  could  sit 
safe  in  the  great  fortress,  but  his  enemy  advanced  straight 
upon  it  and  carried  it  by  assault  before  the  strength  of  the 
Lydian  land  was  collected. 

Carelessness  and  failure  to  keep  proper  watch,  arising 
from  over-confidence  in  the  apparent  strength  of  the  fortress, 
had  been  the  cause  of  this  disaster,  which  ruined  the  dynasty 
and  brought  to  an  end  the  Lydian  Empire  and  the  domin- 
ance of  Sardis.  The  walls  and  gates  were  all  as  strong  as 
art  and  nature  combined  could  make  them.  The  hill  on 
which  the  upper  city  stood  was  steep  and  lofty.  The  one 
approach  to  the  upper  city  was  too  carefully  fortified  to 
offer  any  chance  to  an  assailant.  But  there  was  one  weak 
point :  in  one  place  it  was  possible  for  an  active  enemy  to 
make  his  way  up  the  perpendicular  sides  of  the  lofty  hill, 
if  the  defenders  stood  idle  and  permitted  him  to  climb 
unhindered. 

The  sudden  ruin  of  that  great  Empire  and  the  wealthiest 
king  of  all  the  world  was  an  event  of  that  character  which 
most  impressed  the  Greek  mind,  emphasising  a  moral 
lesson  by  a  great  national  disaster.  A  little  carelessness 
was  shown ;  a  watchman  was  wanting  at  the  necessary 
point,  or  a  sentinel  slept  at  his  post  for  an  hour ;  and  the 
greatest  power  on  the  earth  was  hurled  to  destruction. 
The  great  king  trusted  to  Sardis,  and  Sardis  failed  him  at 
the  critical  moment.  Promise  was  unfulfilled  ;  the  appear- 
ance of  strength  proved  the  mask  of  weakness  ;  the  fortifi- 
cation was  incomplete  ;  work  which  had  been  begun  with 
great  energy  was  not  pushed  through  to  its  conclusion  with 
the  same  determination. 

More  than  three  centuries  later  another  case  of  exactly 
the  same  kind  occurred.     Achaeus  and  Antiochus  the  Great 


378     XXVI.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis 

were  fighting  for  the  command  of  Lydia  and  the  whole 
Seleucid  Empire.  Antiochus  besieged  his  rival  in  Sardis, 
and  the  city  again  was  captured  by  a  surprise  of  the  same 
nature :  a  Cretan  mercenary  led  the  way,  climbing  up  the 
hill  and  stealing  unobserved  within  the  fortifications.  The 
lesson  of  old  days  had  not  been  learned ;  experience  had 
been  forgotten ;  men  were  too  slack  and  careless ;  and 
when  the  moment  of  need  came,  Sardis  was  unprepared. 

A  State  cannot  survive  which  is  guarded  with  such  care- 
lessness ;  a  people  at  once  so  slack  and  so  confident  cannot 
continue  an  imperial  power.  Sardis,  as  a  great  and  ruling 
city,  was  dead.  It  had  sunk  to  be  a  second-rate  city  in  a 
Province.  Yet  it  still  retained  the  name  and  the  historical 
memory  of  a  capital  city.  It  had  great  pretensions,  which 
it  had  vainly  tried  to  establish  in  A.D.  26  before  the  tribunal 
of  the  Roman  Senate  in  the  contention  among  the  Asian 
cities  recorded  by  Tacitus,  Annals,  iv.,  55.  When  in  that 
year  the  Asian  States  in  the  provincial  Council  (called  the 
Commune  of  Asia)  resolved  to  erect  a  temple  to  Tiberius 
and  Livia  his  mother  and  the  Senate,  as  a  token  of  gratitude 
for  the  punishment  of  an  oppressive  and  grasping  admin- 
istrator, eleven  cities  of  the  Province  contended  for  the 
honour  of  being  the  seat  of  the  Temple.  Nine  were  quickly 
set  aside,  some  as  too  unimportant,  Pergamum  as  already 
the  seat  of  a  Temple  to  Augustus,  Ephesus  and  Miletus  as 
taken  up  with  the  ritual  of  Artemis  and  of  Apollo;  but 
there  was  much  hesitation  between  the  claims  of  Smyrna 
and  of  Sardis.  Envoys  of  Sardis  pleaded  the  cause  of 
their  city  before  the  Senate.  They  rested  their  claim  on 
the  mythical  or  historical  glory  of  the  city  as  the  capital 
of  the  Lydians,  who  were  a  sister-race  to  the  Etruscans, 
and  had  sent  colonists  to  the  Peloponnesus,  and  as  hon- 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis        379 

oured  by  letters  from  Roman  generals  and  by  a  special 
treaty  which  Rome  had  concluded  with  Sardis  in  171-168 
B.C.  :  in  conclusion,  they  boasted  of  the  rivers,  the  climate, 
and  the  rich  territory  around  the  city.  The  case,  however, 
was  decided  in  favour  of  Smyrna. 

No  one  can  doubt  that  this  Sardian  letter  took  its  form 
in  part  through  the  memory  of  that  ancient  history.  It 
was  impossible  for  the  Sirdians  to  miss  the  allusion,  and 
therefore  the  writer  must  have  intended  it  and  calculated 
on  it.  Phrase  after  phrase  is  chosen  for  the  evident  pur- 
pose of  recalling  that  ancient  memory,  which  was  undoubt- 
edly still  strong  and  living  among  the  Sardians,  for  the 
Hellenic  cities  had  a  retentive  historical  recollection,  and 
we  know  that  Sardis,  in  the  great  pleading  in  A.D.  26, 
rested  its  case  on  a  careful  selection  of  facts  from  its  past 
history,  though  omitting  the  facts  on  which  we  have  here 
laid  stress,  because  they  were  not  favourable  to  its  argument. 
"  /  know  thy  works,  that  thou  hast  a  name  that  thou  livest, 
and  thou  art  dead.  Be  thou  watchful,  and  stablish  the  things 
that  remain,  which  were  ready  to  die  :  for  I  have  found  no 
works  of  thine  fulfilled  before  my  God.  .  .  .  If  therefore  thou 
shall  not  watch,  I  will  covie  as  a  thief  and  thou  shall  not 
know  what  hour  I  will  come  upon  thee." 

It  seems  therefore  undeniable  that  the  writer  has  selected 
topics  which  rise  out  of  and  stand  in  close  relation  to  the 
past  history  of  Sardis  as  a  city.  In  view  of  this  evident 
plan  and  guiding  purpose,  are  we  to  understand  that  he 
preferred  the  older  historical  reference,  and  left  aside  the 
actual  fortunes  of  the  Church  as  secondary,  when  he  was 
sketching  out  the  order  of  his  letter  ?  Such  a  supposition 
is  impossible.  The  writer  is  in  those  words  drawing  a 
picture  of  the   history  and  degeneration  of  the  Sardian 


380     XXVI.    The  Letter  to  the  Chttrck  in  Sardis 

Church  ;  but  he  draws  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  set  before  his 
readers  the  continuity  of  Sardian  history.  The  story  of 
the  Church  is  a  repetition  of  past  experience  ;  the  character 
of  the  people  remains  unchanged  ;  their  faults  are  still  the 
same ;  and  their  fate  must  be  the  same. 

If  this  view  be  correct — and  it  seems  forced  on  us  un- 
avoidably by  the  facts  of  the  case — then  another  inference 
must  inevitably  follow:  the  writer,  so  far  from  separating 
the  Church  of  Sardis  from  the  city  of  Sardis,  emphasises 
strongly  the  closeness  of  the  connection  between  them. 
The  Church  of  Sardis  is  not  merely  in  the  city  of  Sardis,  it 
is  in  a  sense  the  city  ;  and  the  Christians  are  the  people  of 
the  city.  There  is  not  in  his  mind  the  slightest  idea  that 
Christians  are  to  keep  out  of  the  world — as  might  perhaps 
be  suggested  from  a  too  exclusive  contemplation  of  some 
parts  of  the  Revelation  ;  the  Church  here  is  addressed, 
apparently  with  the  set  purpose  of  suggesting  that  the 
fortunes  of  ancient  Sardis  had  been  its  own  fortunes,  that 
it  had  endured  those  sieges,  committed  those  faults  of  care- 
lessness and  blind  confidence,  and  sunk  into  the  same  decay 
and  death  as  the  city. 

That  this  is  intentional  and  deliberate  cannot  be  ques- 
tioned for  a  moment.  What  this  writer  said  he  meant. 
There  is  no  accident  or  unintended  significance  in  those 
carefully  chosen  and  well-weighed  words.  In  regard  to 
this  letter  the  same  reflections  arise  as  were  already  sug- 
gested in  the  case  of  the  other  letters,  and  especially  the 
Smyrnaean  and  Pergamenian.  In  his  conflict  with  the 
Nicolaitans  the  writer  was  never  betrayed  into  mere  blind 
opposition  to  them  ;  he  never  rejected  their  views  from 
mere  hatred  of  those  who  held  them  ;  he  took  the  wider 
view  which  embraced  everything  that  was  right  and  true 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis        381 

in  the  principles  of  the  Nicolaitans — and  there  was  a  good 
deal  that  was  rightly  thought  and  well  said  by  them — 
together  with  a  whole  world  of  thought  which  they  had 
no  eyes  to  see.  In  the  Seven  Letters  he  repeatedly  gives 
marked  emphasis  to  the  principle,  which  the  Nicolaitans 
rightly  maintained,  that  the  Christians  should  be  a  force 
in  the  world,  moulding  it  gradually  to  a  Christian  model. 
Here  and  everywhere  throughout  the  Letters  the  writer 
is  found  to  be  reiterating  one  thought,  "  See  how  much 
better  the  true  eternal  Church  does  everything  than  any 
of  the  false  pretenders  and  opponents  can  do  them ". 

In  regard  to  one  detail  after  another  he  points  out  how 
far  superior  is  the  Christian  form  to  that  in  which  it  is 
tendered  by  the  Imperial  State,  by  the  cities,  or  by  false 
teachers.  If  Laodicea  clothes  its  citizens  with  the  glossy 
black  woollen  garments  of  its  famous  industry,  he  offers 
white  garments  to  clothe  the  true  Laodiceans.  If  the  State 
has  its  mighty  military  strength  and  its  imperial  authority, 
he  points  out  to  the  true  remnant  among  the  Thyatirans 
that  a  more  crushing  and  irresistible  might  shall  be  placed 
in  their  hands,  and  offers  to  the  Pergamenian  victors  a 
wider  authority  over  worlds  seen  and  unseen.  If  the 
Nicolaitans  emphasise  the  intimate  relation  between  the 
life  of  the  Church  and  the  organisation  of  the  State  and 
the  society  amid  which  the  Church  exists,  he  states  with 
equal  emphasis,  but  with  the  proper  additions,  that  the 
Church  is  so  closely  connected  with  the  State  and  the 
City  that  it  can  be  regarded  as  sharing  in  a  way  their  life, 
fortunes  and  powers. 

It  is  not  fanciful  to  trace  here,  as  in  other  cases,  a  con- 
nection between  the  spirit  of  the  advice  tendered  and  the 
permanent  features  of  nature  amid  which  the  city  stood  and 


382     XXVI.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis 

by  which  it  was  insensibly  moulded.  Sardis  stood,  or  rather 
the  upper  an  1  the  only  fortified  city  stood,  on  a  lofty  hill, 
a  spur  projecting  north  from  Mount  Tmolus  and  dominating 
the  Hermus  Valley.  Ti.e  hill  has  still,  in  its  dilapidated 
and  diminished  extent,  an  imposing  appearance ;  but  it 
undoubtedly  offered  a  far  more  splendid  show  two  or 
three  thousand  years  ago,  when  the  top  must  have  been 
a  high  plateau  of  moderate  extent,  the  sides  of  which 
were  almost  perpendicular  walls  of  rock,  except  where  a 
narrow  isthmus  connected  the  hill  with  the  mountains 
behind  it  on  the  south.  Towards  the  plain  on  the  north, 
towards  the  glens  on  east  and  west,  it  presented  the  most 
imposing  show,  a  city  with  walls  and  towers,  temples,  houses 
and  palaces,  filling  the  elevated  plateau  so  completely  that 
on  all  sides  it  looked  as  if  one  could  drop  a  stone  i,5CXD  feet 
straight  into  the  plain  from  the  outer  buildings. 

The  rock,  however,  on  which  Sardis  was  built  was  only 
nominally  a  rock.  In  reality,  as  you  go  nearer  it,  you  see 
that  it  is  only  mud  slightly  compacted,  and  easily  dissolved 
by  rain.  It  is,  however,  so  constituted  that  it  wears  away 
with  a  very  steep,  almost  perpendicular  face ;  but  rain  and 
frost  continually  diminish  it,  so  that  little  now  remains  of 
the  upper  plateau  on  which  the  city  stood  ;  and  in  one  place 
the  top  has  been  worn  to  an  extremely  narrow  neck 
with  steep  descents  of  the  usual  kind  on  both  sides,  so  that 
the  visitor  needs  a  fairly  cool  head  and  steady  nerve  to  walk 
across  it.  The  isthmus  connecting  the  plateau  with  the 
mountains  of  Tmolus  on  the  south  has  been  worn  away  in 
a  lesser  degree. 

The  crumbling,  poor  character  of  the  rock  must  always 
have  been  a  feature  that  impressed  the  thinking  mind,  and 
led  it  to  associate  the  character  of  the  inhabitants  with  this 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis        383 

feature  of  the  situation.  Instability,  untrustworthiness,  inef- 
ficiency, deterioration — such  is  the  impression  that  the  rock 
gives,  and  such  was  the  character  of  Sardian  history  and 
of  the  Sardian  Church. 

But  Sardis  was  not  entirely  degenerate  and  unworthy. 
Even  in  it  there  were  a  few  persons  who  maintained  their 
Christian  character  and  ^^ did  not  defile  their  garments*'. 
This  strong  expression  shows  wherein  lay  the  guilt  of 
Sardis.  It  was  different  essentially  from  the  fault  of  Thy- 
atira,  the  city  which  comes  next  to  Sardis  in  the  severity 
of  its  condemnation.  Thyatira  was  in  many  ways  distin- 
guished by  excellence  of  conduct,  and  the  corporate  life  of 
its  Church  was  vigorous  and  improving,  so  that  its  **  last 
works  were  more  than  the  first " ;  but  a  false  theory  of 
life  and  a  false  conception  of  what  was  right  action  were 
leading  it  astray.  Sardis  was  not  Christian  enough  to 
entertain  a  heresy  or  be  led  astray  by  a  false  system ; 
it  had  lost  all  vigour  and  life,  and  had  sunk  back  to  the 
ordinary  pagan  level  of  conduct,  which  from  the  Christian 
point  of  view  was  essentially  vicious  and  immoral  in 
principle. 

The  Sardian  Church  fell  under  the  condemnation  pro- 
nounced by  St.  Paul  (i  Cor.  v.  10)  against  those  who, 
having  become  Christians  and  learned  the  principles  of 
morality,  relapsed  into  the  vices  which  were  commonly 
practised  in  pagan  society.  These  were  to  be  treated  far 
more  severely  than  the  pagans,  though  the  pagans  lived 
after  the  same  fashion  ;  for  the  pagans  lived  so  on  principle, 
knowingly  and  intentionally,  because  they  held  it  to  be 
right,  whereas  the  Christians  had  learned  that  it  was  wrong, 
and  yet  from  weakness  of  will  and  character  slipped  back 
into  the  evil.     With  them  the  true  Christians  were  not  to 


384     XXVI.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sarats 

keep  company,  but  were  to  put  them  out  of  their  society 
and  their  meetings.  With  pagans  who  hVed  after  the  same 
fashion,  however,  it  was  allowable  to  associate  (though  it 
lies  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  and  needs  no  formal  state- 
ment, that  the  association  between  Christians  and  pagans 
could  never  be  so  intimate  as  that  of  Christians  with  one 
another). 

A  peculiarly  kind  and  loving  tone  is  perceptible  in  this 
part  of  the  letter.  There  is  a  certain  reaction  after  the 
abhorrence  and  disgust  with  which  the  weak  degeneracy  of 
Sardis  has  been  described  ;  and  in  this  reaction  the  deserts 
of  the  faithful  few  are  painted  with  a  loving  touch.  They 
have  kept  themselves  pure  and  true,  and  "  they  shall  walk 
with  me  in  white,  for  they  are  worthy".  Their  reward  shall 
be  to  continue  to  the  end  white  and  pure,  as  they  have  kept 
themselves  in  Sardis. 

This  warm  and  affectionate  tone  is  marked  by  the  form 
of  the  final  promise,  which  begins  by  simply  repeating  what 
has  been  already  said  in  the  letter.  In  most  of  the  other 
letters  the  final  promise  comes  as  an  addition  ;  but  here 
the  love  that  speaks  in  the  letter  has  already  uttered  the 
promise,  and  there  is  nothing  left  in  the  conclusion  except 
to  say  it  again,  and  to  add  explicitly  what  is  already  im- 
plied in  it,  life.  "  He  that  overcometh  shall  thus  be  arrayed 
in  zvhite  garments  ;  and  I  will  in  no  wise  blot  his  name  out 
of  the  Book  of  Life,  and  I  will  confess  his  name  before  my 
Father  and  before  his  angels!'  The  reward  of  all  victors 
shall  be  the  reward  just  promised  to  the  few  faithful  in 
Sardis,  purity  and  life — to  have  their  name  standing  always 
in  the  Book,  openly  acknowledged  and  emblazoned  before 
God. 

In  the  Smyrnaean  letter  also  the  concluding  promise  is 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis       385 

to  a  certain  extent  anticipated  in  the  body  of  the  letter,  as 
here ;  and  the  tone  of  that  letter  is  throughout  warm  and 
appreciative,  beyond  the  rest  of  the  Seven  Letters.  Where 
this  letter  rises  to  the  tone  of  love  and  admiration,  it  ap- 
proximates to  the  character  of  the  Smyrnaean  letter,  and 
like  it  ends  with  the  promise  of  life. 

The  "  Book  of  Life  "  is  here  evidently  understood  as  an 
official  list  (so  to  say)  of  the  citizens  of  the  heavenly  city, 
the  true  Jerusalem,  the  Elect  City,  peopled  by  the  true 
Christians  of  all  cities  and  provinces  and  nations.  As  in  all 
Greek  and  Roman  cities  of  that  time  there  was  kept  a  list 
of  citizens,  according  to  their  class  or  tribe  or  deme,  in 
which  new  citizens  were  entered  and  from  which  degraded 
citizens  were  expunged,  so  the  writer  of  this  letter  figura- 
tively mentions  the  Book  of  Life.  There  is  a  remnant  in 
Sardis  whose  names  shall  never  be  deleted  from  the  Book, 
from  which  most  Sardians  have  been  expunged  already. 

That  undoubtedly  is  the  meaning  which  would  be  taken 
from  the  words  here  by  Asian  readers.  Mr.  Anderson  Scott 
points  out  that  in  the  Jewish  Apocalyptic  literature  a  wider 
sense  is  given  to  the  term,  and  the  "Book  of  Life"  is 
regarded  as  a  record  of  exploits,  a  history  of  the  life  and 
works  of  God's  people.  That  this  second  sense  was  in 
the  writer's  mind  elsewhere  is  certain  ;  but  it  is  certain 
that  he  speaks  and  thinks  of  two  distinct  kinds  of  books : 
one  is  a  series  of  books  of  record  :  the  other  is  the  Book 
of  Life.  This  is  clear  from  the  words  of  xx.  12:/  saw 
the  dead  great  and  small,  standing  before  the  Throne ;  and 
books  were  opened :  and  another  book  zvas  opened,  which  is 
{the  Book)  of  Life :  and  the  dead  were  judged  out  of  the 
things  which  were  written  in  the  books,  according  to  their 
works.     With  this  passage  xiii.  8,  xvii.  8,  xx.  15  should  be 

25 


386     XXVI.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardh 

compared,  and  from  it  they  should  be  interpreted.  The 
wider  sense  could  not  be  gathered  by  the  Asian  readers 
from  this  reference,  and  was  assuredly  not  intended  by  the 
writer  of  the  letter. 

This  is  one  of  many  points  of  difference  which  strongly 
mark  off  the  Apocalypse  of  John  from  the  common  Apo- 
calyptic literature  of  that  age  and  earlier  times  ;  and  this 
immense  difference  ought  never  to  be  forgotten  (though  it 
is  perhaps  not  always  remembered  clearly  enough)  by  those 
scholars  who,  in  studying  the  great  influence  exerted  by 
the  older  literature  of  this  class  on  our  Apocalypse,  have 
seen  in  it  an  enlarged  Christian  edition  of  an  originally 
Jewish  Apocalypse. 

White  was  widely  considered  among  the  ancient  nations 
as  the  colour  of  innocence  and  purity.  On  this  account  it 
was  appropriate  for  those  who  were  engaged  in  the  worship 
of  the  gods,  for  purity  was  prescribed  as  a  condition  of 
engaging  in  divine  service,  though  usually  the  purity  was 
understood  in  a  merely  ceremonial  sense.  All  Roman 
citizens  wore  the  pure  white  toga  on  holidays  and  at  reli- 
gious ceremonies,  whether  or  not  they  wore  it  on  ordinary 
days ;  in  fact,  the  great  majority  of  them  did  not  ordinarily 
wear  that  heavy  and  cumbrous  garment ;  and  hence  the 
city  on  festivals  and  holidays  is  called  "  Candida  urbs,"  the 
city  in  white.  Especially  on  the  day  of  a  Triumph  white 
was  the  universal  colour — though  the  soldiers,  of  course, 
wore  not  the  toga,  the  garb  of  peace,  but  their  full-dress 
military  attire  with  all  their  decorations — and  there  can 
hardly  be  any  doubt  that  the  idea  of  walking  in  a  Triumph 
similar  to  that  celebrated  by  a  victorious  Roman  general 
is  here  present  in  the  mind  of  the  writer  when  he  uses  the 
words,  "  they  shall  walk  with  me  in  white  ".     A  dirty  and 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis        387 

dark-coloured  toga,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the  appropriate 
dress  of  sorrow  and  of  guilt.  Hence  it  was  worn  by 
mourners  and  by  persons  accused  of  crimes. 

The  Asian  readers  could  know  of  a  Roman  Triumph 
only  from  literature  and  report,  for  in  the  strictest  sense 
Triumphs  could  be  celebrated  only  in  Rome,  and  only  by 
an  Emperor  in  person ;  but,  in  proportion  as  the  Triumph 
in  the  strict  old  Roman  sense  became  rare,  the  splendour 
and  pomp  which  had  originally  been  appropriated  to  it 
alone  were  more  widely  employed ;  as,  for  example,  in  the 
procession  escorting  the  pies. ding  magistrate,  the  Praetor, 
to  the  games  in  the  Roman  Circus ;  and  there  is  no  doubt 
that  the  great  provincial  festivals  and  shows,  which  were 
celebrated  in  the  chief  Asian  cities  according  to  Imperial 
policy  as  a  means  of  diffusing  Roman  ideas  and  ways,  were 
inaugurated  with  a  procession  modelled  after  the  stately 
Roman  procession  in  which  the  Praetor  was  escorted  in 
triumph  to  the  circus,  as  Juvenal  describes  it: — 

What !  had  he  seen,  in  his  triumphant  car, 
Amid  the  dusty  Cirque,  conspicuous  far, 
The  Praetor  perched  aloft,  superbly  drest 
In  Jove's  proud  tunic  with  a  trailing  vest 
Of  Tyrian  tapestry,  and  o'er  him  spread 
A  crown  too  bulky  for  a  human  head : 

Add  now  the  Imperial  Eagle,  raised  on  high, 
With  golden  beak,  the  mark  of  majesty. 
Trumpets  before,  and  on  the  left  and  right 
A  cavalcade  of  nobles,  all  in  white. 

Thus  though  the  Triumph  itself  could  never  have  been 
seen  by  the  readers  of  this  letter,  they  knew  it  as  the  most 
typical  celebration  of  complete  and  final  victory,  partly 
from  report  and  literature,  partly  from  frequently  seeing 


388     XXVI.   The  Letter  to  the  Chiwch  in  Sardis 

ceremonies  in  the  great  Imperial  festivals  which  were 
modelled  after  the  Triumph.  Hence,  St,  Paul  in  writing 
to  the  Colossians,  ii.  15,  uses  a  similar  metaphor:  ^^ he 
made  a  show  of  the  principalities  and  the  powers,  openly 
triumphing  over  them  in  it"  which  (as  Lightfoot  and 
scholars  generally  recognise)  means  that  the  powers  of  the 
world  were  treated  as  a  general  treats  his  conquered  foes, 
stripped  ^  of  their  honours,  and  paraded  in  the  Triumph  as 
a  show  to  please  the  citizens  and  to  glorify  the  conqueror. 

The  Triumph  was  in  origin  a  religious  ceremonial.  The 
victorious  general  who  celebrated  it  played  for  the  mo- 
ment the  part  of  the  Roman  god  Jupiter  ;  he  wore  the 
god's  dress  and  insignia,  and  resigned  them  again  when  he 
reached  the  Temple  of  Jupiter  Optimus  Maximus  on  the 
Capitoline  Mount.  But  it  need  not  be  thought  strange 
that  St.  John  and  St.  Paul  should  use  this  pagan  ceremonial 
to  express  metaphorically  the  decisive  triumph  of  Christ 
over  all  opposing  powers  in  the  world,  when  we  have  seen 
that  Ignatius  describes  the  life  of  the  true  Christian  as  a 
long  religious  procession  similar  to  those  which  were  cele- 
brated in  the  pagan  ritual. 

The  warm  and  loving  tone  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
Sardian  letter  need  cause  no  wonder.  There  is  always 
something  peculiarly  admirable  and  affecting  in  the  con- 
templation of  a  pure  and  high  life  which  maintains 
unspotted  rectitude  amid  surrounding  degradation  and 
vileness.  No  characters  stand  out  in  clearer  relief  and 
more  striking  beauty  than  the  small  band  of  high-minded 
Romans  who  preserved  their  nobility  of  spirit  and  life 
amid  the  degeneracy  and  servility  of  the  early  Empire. 
The  same  distinction  marks  this  remnant  of  purity  amid 
the  decaying  and  already  dead  Church  of  Sardis.     Even 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis       389 

the  thought  of  it  rouses  a  warm  interest  in  the  modern 
reader's  mind,  and  we  understand  how  it  inspires  this  part 
of  the  letter  with  an  unusual  warmth  of  emotion,  which 
contrasts  with  the  coldness  that  we  observed  in  the  Ephesian 
letter. 

Hence  also  we  see  how  the  analogy  between  these  two 
letters,  the  Sardian  and  the  Ephesian,  ceases  towards  the 
end  of  the  letter.  The  standard  of  conduct  throughout  the 
Ephesian  Church  had  been  uniform ;  the  whole  Church 
had  acted  correctly  and  admirably  in  the  past ;  the  whole 
Church  was  now  cooling  down  and  beginning  to  degenerate. 
No  exception  is  made  ;  no  remnant  is  described  that  had 
not  lost  heart  and  enthusiasm.  The  changeable  nature  of 
Ephesus  had  affected  all  alike.  And  therefore  the  penalty 
is  pronounced,  that  the  Church  shall  be  moved  out  of  its 
place.  It  is  a  conditional  penalty ;  but  there  is  no  sugges- 
tion that  any  portion  of  the  Church  has  escaped  or  may 
escape  it.  The  Church  as  a  whole  must  revivify  itself,  or 
suffer  the  penalty ;  and  Ephesus  cannot  alter  its  nature ; 
changeableness  is  the  law  of  its  being.  There  is  no  real 
hope  held  out  that  the  penalty  may  be  avoided  ;  and  the 
promise  at  the  conclusion  is  couched  in  the  most  general 
terms ;  this  Church  is  cooling  and  degenerating,  but  to 
him  that  overcometh  vigour  and  life  shall  be  given. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Sardian  Church  has  not  been 
uniform  in  its  conduct,  and  it  shall  not  all  suffer  the  same 
fate.  The  Church  as  a  whole  is  dead ;  but  a  {q.^^  who 
form  bright  and  inspiring  exceptions,  shall  live  as  citizens 
of  the  heavenly  city.  There  is  no  hint  that  Sardis  shall  be 
spared,  or  the  Church  survive  it.  Its  doom  is  sealed  irre- 
vocably ;  and  yet  a  remnant  shall  live. 

Sardis  to-day  is  a  wilderness  of  ruins  and  thorns,  pas- 


390     XXVI.   The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Sardis 

tures  and  wild-flowers,  where  the  only  habitations  are  a 
few  huts  of  Yuruk  nomads  beside  the  temple  of  Cybele  in 
the  low  ground  by  the  Pactolus,  and  at  the  distance  of  a 
mile  two  modern  houses  by  the  railway  station.  And  yet 
in  a  sense  a  remnant  has  escaped  and  still  survives,  which 
does  not  indeed  excite  the  same  loving  tenderness  as  makes 
itself  felt  in  the  latter  part  of  this  letter,  yet  assuredly 
merits  our  sympathy  and  interest.  In  the  plain  of  the 
Hermus,  which  Sardis  once  dominated  there  are  a  few 
scattered  villages  whose  inhabitants,  though  nominally 
Mohammedans,  are  clearly  marked  off  by  certain  customs 
from  the  Turkish  population  around.  Their  women  (ac- 
cording to  the  account  given  us  at  Sardis)  usually  bear 
Christian  names,  though  the  men's  names  are  of  the  or- 
dinary Mohammedan  class ;  they  have  a  kind  of  priests, 
who  wear  black  head-dress,  not  the  white  turban  of  the 
Mohammedan  hodjas  and  imams  ;  the  villages  hold  private 
assemblies  when  these  "  black-heads "  (Kara-Bash)  pay 
them  visits ;  they  practise  strict  monogamy,  and  divorce 
(which  is  so  easy  for  true  Mohammedans)  is  not  permitted ; 
they  drink  wine  and  violate  other  Mohammedan  rules  and 
prohibitions  ;  and  it  is  believed  by  some  persons  who  have 
mixed  with  them  that  they  would  become  Christians  forth- 
with, if  it  did  not  mean  death  to  do  so.  At  the  same  time 
they  are  not  at  all  like  the  strange  people  called  Takhtaji 
or  Woodmen  :  ^  the  latter  are  apparently  a  survival  of  ancient 
paganism,  pre-Christian  in  origin. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

PHILADELPHIA:  THE  MISSIONARY  CITY.» 

Philadelphia  was  the  only  Pergamenian  foundation 
among  the  Seven  Cities.  It  derived  its  name  from  At- 
talus  II.,  159-138  B.C.,  whose  truth  and  loyalty  to  his 
brother  Eumenes  won  him  the  epithet  Philadelphus.  The 
district  where  it  was  situated,  the  valley  of  the  Cogamis,  a 
tributary  of  the  Hermus,  came  into  the  possession  of  the 
Pergamenian  King  Eumenes  at  the  treaty  of  189.  From 
that  time  onward  the  district  was  in  the  heart  of  the  Per- 
gamenian realm  ;  and  therefore  the  new  city  could  not 
have  been  founded  as  a  military  colony  to  guard  a  frontier, 
like  Thyatira.  Military  strength  was,  of  course,  never 
entirely  neglected  in  those  foundations  of  the  Greek  kings ; 
and  especially  a  city  founded,  like  Philadelphia,  on  an 
important  road,  was  charged  with  the  duty  of  guarding 
the  road.2  But  military  strength  and  defence  against  in- 
vasion were  required  chiefly  near  the  eastern  frontier,  far 
away  on  the  other  side  of  Phrygia,  where  an  enemy  should 
be  prevented  from  entering  the  realm.  Philadelphia  was 
founded  more  for  consolidating  and  regulating  and  educat- 
ing the  central  regions  subject  to  the  Pergamenian  kings. 
The  intention  of  its  founder  was  to  make  it  a  centre  of  the 
Graeco-Asiatic  civilisation  and  a  means  of  spreading  the 
Greek  language  and  manners  in  the  eastern  parts  of  Lydia 
and  in  Phrygia.     It  was  a  missionary  city  from  the  begin- 

(391) 


392     XXVII.  Philadelphia:  the  Missionary  City 

ning,  founded  to  promote  a  certain  unity  of  spirit,  customs, 
and  loyalty  within  the  realm,  the  apostle  of  Hellenism  in 
an  Oriental  land.  It  was  a  successful  teacher.  Before 
A.D.  19  the  Lydian  tongue  had  ceased  to  be  spoken  in 
Lydia,  and  Greek  was  the  only  language  of  the  country. 

If  sufficient  information  had  been  preserved  about  the 
religion  of  Thyatira  and  Philadelphia,  it  would  have  been 
possible  to  understand  and  describe  the  nature  of  those 
two  Graeco-Asiatic  cities  and  to  specify  the  difference  in 
character  between  a  Seleucid  and  a  Pergamenian  foundation. 
From  the  religious  establishment  of  each  city,  it  would  have 
been  easy  to  distinguish  what  elements  in  each  were  native 
Anatolian,  what  were  introduced  from  Europe,  and  what 
were  brought  in  by  colonists  from  Oriental  lands,  and  how 
these  were  blended  to  produce  a  composite  Graeco-Asiatic 
religion  corresponding  to  the  purposes  which  the  new  cities 
were  intended  to  serve.  This  would  be  an  object-lesson  in 
practical  government  and  religion,  for  those  two  cities  are 
types  of  the  fusion  of  Greek  and  Asiatic  thought  and  custom, 
as  attempted  by  the  two  chief  Hellenising  kingdoms  in  the 
Asiatic  continent.  But  literary  sources  are  silent,  and  the 
information  furnished  by  coins  and  inscriptions  is  too 
scanty,  sporadic,  and  superficial  to  be  of  much  value. 

The  coins,  as  a  rule,  were  much  more  Hellenised  than  the 
actual  cults.  Hellenised  ideas  about  the  gods,  being  more 
anthropomorphic,  were  more  easily  adapted  to  the  small 
types  which  coins  admitted  ;  and,  moreover,  they  belonged 
to  the  higher  education,  and  obtained  on  that  account  more 
than  their  relative  share  of  notice  in  such  public  and  official 
monuments  as  coins,  Philadelphia,  also,  was  a  centre  for 
the  diffusion  of  Greek  language  and  letters  in  a  peaceful 
land  by  peaceful  means. 


Philadelphia :  the  Missionary  City  393 

A  subject  like  that  which  appears  in  Fig.  33  represents 
Philadelphia  in  a  purely  Greek  and  an  entirely  non-religious 
fashion  by  two  men  exactly  similar  in  attitude  and  dress, 
standing  and  looking  upon  the  genius  of  Ephesus  as  she 
carries  the  idol  of  her  own  Artemis  towards  a  temple  built 
in  the  Roman  style.  The  tvv^o  men  are  two  brothers,  and 
their  identity  of  outward  form  is  symbolical  of  their  unan- 
imity and  mutual  affection,  and  makes  them  a  suitable 
envisagement  of  the  nature  of  a  city,  whose  name  means 
brotherly  love.      This   coin  commemorates  an  "alliance," 


Fig.  33. — The  alliance  of  Philadelphia  and  EphesuB. 

or  agreement  as  to  common  religious  and  festal  arrange- 
ments, between  the  two  cities.  Apparently  the  temple  is 
to  be  understood  as  Philadelphian  ;  and  the  Ephesian 
goddess  is  being  introduced  into  established  Philadelphian 
ritual  in  the  presence  of  the  twin  Hellenised  founders  of 
the  city.     See  pp.  125  f,  230. 

Thoroughly  Graeco-Roman  in  character,  too,  is  the  coin 
type  shown  in  Fig.  34.  Here  the  front  of  a  temple  is  repre- 
sented as  open,  to  show  a  statue  of  the  sun-god,  with  head 
surrounded  by  rays :  he  holds  out  the  globe  of  the  sun  (or 


394     XXVII.  Philadelphia:  the  Missionary  City 

is  it  the  solid  earth  ?)  in  his  right  hand,  and  carries  a  sceptre 
in  his  left. 

More  indicative  of  Anatolian  religious  character  is  a  type 
which  occurs  more  than  once,  a  coiled  serpent  with  raised 
head  and  protruding  tongue  riding  on  the  back  of  a  horse. 
The  serpent  is,  without  doubt,  the  representative  of  Askle- 
pios,  as  in  Fig.  23,  p.  285,  but  it  is  probable  that  the  type 
is  not  in  a  further  sense  religious :  it  does  not  indicate  any 
connection  in  myth   or  cult   between  Asklepios  and   the 


Fig.  34. — The  Sun-god  of  Philadelphia, 


horse,  but  merely  that  a  horse-race  was  a  prominent  feature 
in  the  games  celebrated  under  tlie  name  Asklepieia. 

Inscriptions  give  some  information,  which  the  Hellenised 
coins  refuse,  about  the  cults  practised  in  the  city,  and 
prove  that  the  Anatolian  character  was  strongly  marked. 
In  those  Graeco- Asiatic  cities  there  is  no  sign  that  the 
Greek  spirit  in  religion  took  the  place  of  the  Anatolian  to 
any  great  extent.  The  Greek  character  in  religion  was 
confined  to  superficial  show  and  festivals :  in  heart  the 
religion  was  thoroughly  Anatolian.     Many  of  the  formulae 


Philadelphia :  the  Missionary  City         395 

characteristic  of  the  reh'gion  practised  in  the  Katakekaumene 
(a  district  described  below),  confession  of  sin,  punishment 
of  sin  by  the  god,  thanks  to  the  god,  publication  of  the 
circumstances  on  a  stele  erected  as  a  testimony,  etc.,  occur 
in  inscriptions  found  at  Philadelphia.^ 

The  Pergamenian  king  selected  an  excellent  situation  for 
the  new  city.  A  long  vale  runs  up  south-east  from  the 
Hermus  Valley  into  the  flank  of  the  central  plateau  :  this  is 
the  vale  down  which  comes  the  river  Cogamis  to  join  the 
Hermus.  The  vale  ofiers  the  best  path  to  make  the  ascent 
from  the  middle  Hermus  Valley,  500  feet  or  less  above  the 
sea,  to  the  main  plateau  :  the  plateau  is  over  3,000  feet 
above  sea-level,  and  its  outer  rim  is  even  higher.  It  is  not 
easy  for  a  road  to  make  so  high  a  step,  and  even  by  the 
Cogamis  vale  there  is  a  very  steep  and  long  climb  to  the 
top  of  the  hills  which  form  the  rim  of  the  plateau.  But 
this  is  the  path  by  which  trade  and  communication  from 
the  harbour  of  Smyrna  and  from  Lydia  and  the  north-west 
regions  are  maintained  with  Phrygia  and  the  East.  It  was 
at  that  time  an  important  road,  rivalling  even  the  great 
trade-route  from  Ephesus  to  the  East ;  and  in  later  Byzan- 
tine and  mediaeval  times  it  was  the  greatest  trade-route  of 
the  whole  country.  Its  importance  is  now  continued  by 
the  railway,  which  connects  Smyrna  with  the  interior. 

Moreover,  the  Imperial  Post-Road  of  the  first  century, 
coming  from  Rome  by  Troas,  Pergamum  and  Sardis  (see 
map  facing  p.  i),  passed  through  Philadelphia  and  went 
on  to  the  East ;  and  thus  Philadelphia  was  a  stage  on  the 
main  line  of  Imperial  communication.  Tliis  ceased  to  be 
the  case  when  the  later  overland  route  by  Constantinople 
(Byzantium,  as  it  was  then  called)  and  Ancyra  was  organ- 
ised in  the  second  century.* 


396     XXVI I.  Philadelphia:  the  Missionary  City 

The  Cogamis  Vale  is  enclosed  between  Mount  Tmolus  on 
the  left  (south  and  west)  and  the  plateau  proper  on  the 
right.  A  site  for  the  city  was  found  on  a  broad  hill,  which 
slopes  gently  up  from  the  valley  towards  Tmolus.  In  a 
too  close  view  from  the  plain  the  hill  seems  to  merge  in 
the  main  mass  of  Tmolus,  but  when  one  ascends  through 
the  streets  of  the  modern  town  to  the  highest  point,  one 
finds  that  the  hill  is  cut  off  from  the  mountains  behind.^ 
See  Plate  XII.  Thus  the  site  was  susceptible  of  being  made 
a  very  strong  fortress  in  ancient  warfare,  provided  it  were 
carefully  fortified  on  the  lower  slopes  and  courageously 
defended  in  the  hour  of  trial ;  and  its  strength  was  proved 
in  many  long  and  terrible  sieges  by  the  Mohammedans  in 
later  centuries. 

From  these  general  considerations  the  modern  scholar 
has  to  reconstruct  in  imagination  the  character  of  the  city 
at  the  beginning  of  our  era.  It  was  then  an  important 
place  with  a  considerable  coinage  :  the  great  Swiss  numis- 
matist, M.  Imhoof  Blumer,  assigns  a  large  body  of  coins 
to  the  reign  of  Augustus.^ 

Then  Philadelphia  emerges  into  world-wide  fame  through 
a  conspicuous  disaster.  It  was  situated  on  the  edge  of  the 
Katakekaumene,  a  district  of  Lydia  where  volcanoes,  now 
extinct,  have  been  active  in  recent  geological  time,  where 
the  traces  of  their  eruptions  in  rivers  of  black  lava  and  vast 
cinder-heaps  are  very  impressive,  and  where  earthquakes 
have  been  frequent  in  historical  times.  In  A.D.  17  an  un- 
usually severe  earthquake  destroyed  twelve  cities  of  the 
great  Lydian  Valley,  including  Sardis  and  Philadelphia. 
Strabo,  who  wrote  about  two  or  three  years  after  this  dis- 
aster, says  that  Sardis  suffered  most  at  the  moment,  but 
gives  a  remarkable  picture  of  the  long-continued  terror  at 


.  v^ 


Philadelphia :  the  Missionary  City  397 


Philadelphia.  Apparently  frequent  shocks  were  experi- 
enced there  for  a  long  time  afterwards.  It  has  been  the 
present  writer's  experience  in  that  country  that  the  first 
great  shock  of  earthquake  is  not  so  trying  to  the  mind  as 
the  subsequent  shocks,  even  though  less  severe,  when 
these  recur  at  intervals  during  the  subsequent  weeks  and 
months,  and  that  people  who  have  shown  conspicuous 
courage  at  first  may  give  way  to  utter  panic  during  some 
of  the  later  shocks.  This  state  of  panic  set  in  at  Phila- 
delphia, and  continued  when  Strabo  wrote,  A.D.  20.  Many 
of  the  inhabitants  remained  outside  the  city  living  in  huts  and 
booths  over  the  vale,  and  those  who  were  foolhardy  enough 
(as  the  sober-minded  thought)  to  remain  in  the  city,  prac- 
tised various  devices  to  support  and  strengthen  the  walls 
and  houses  against  the  recurring  shocks.  The  memory  of 
this  disaster  lived  long  ;  the  very  name  Katakekaumene 
was  a  perpetual  warning  ;  people  lived  amid  ever  threaten- 
ing danger,  in  dread  always  of  a  new  disaster;  and  the 
habit  of  going  out  to  the  open  country  had  probably  not 
disappeared  when  the  Seven  Letters  were  written. 

Philadelphia  shared  in  the  bounty  of  the  Emperor  Tiberius 
on  this  occasion,  and  took  part  with  the  other  cities  in 
erecting  in  Rome  a  monument  commemorating  their 
gratitude.  It  also  founded  a  cult  of  Germanicus,  the 
adopted  son  and  heir  of  Tiberius  (according  to  the  will  of 
Augustus),  who  was  in  Asia  at  the  time,  and  who  was  pro- 
bably the  channel  through  which  the  bounty  was  transmitted. 
In  spite  of  this  liberality  the  city  suffered  severely  ;  its 
prosperity  was  seriously  impaired  ;  and  no  coins  were  struck 
by  it  throughout  the  reign  of  Tiberius. 

It  was  probably  in  commemoration  of  the  kindness  shown 
by  the  Emperor  on  this  occasion  that  Philadelphia  assumed 


398     XXVII.  Philadelphia :  the  Missionary  City 

the  name  Neokaisareia ;  the  New  Caesar  was  either  Tiberius 
(as  compared  with  Augustus)  or  Germanicus  (as  compared 
with  Tiberius)  J  The  name  Neokaisareia  is  known  both 
from  coins  and  epigraphy  during  the  ensuing  period.  At 
first  the  old  name  was  disused  and  the  new  name  employed 
alone ;  then  the  old  name  recurred  alongside  of  or  alter- 
nately with  the  new ;  and  finally  about  A.D.  42-50  the  new 
name  disappeared  from  use.  Philadelphia  was  the  only  one 
of  the  Seven  Cities  that  had  voluntarily  substituted  a  new 
name  for  its  original  name  :  the  other  six  were  too  proud  of 
their  ancient  fame  to  sacrifice  their  name,  though  Sardis 
took  the  epithet  Caesareia  for  a  short  time  after  A.D.  17. 

This  explanation  of  the  name  Neokaisareia  differs  from 
that  given  by  M.  Imhoof  Blumer,  who  says  that  the  name 
was  assumed  in  honour  of  Caligula.  His  reason  is  that  the 
name  is  found  only  on  some  coins  of  Caligula  and  of  his 
successor ;  but  it  was  impossible  to  put  it  on  coins  of 
Tiberius,  for  no  coins  were  struck  under  that  Emperor. 
The  new  name  began  to  fall  into  disuse  even  during  the 
short  reign  of  Caligula,  and  disappeared  entirely  soon  after 
the  accession  of  Claudius. 

Subsequently,  during  the  reign  of  Vespasian,  A.D.  70-79, 
Philadelphia  assumed  another  Imperial  title  and  called 
itself  Flavia ;  and  the  double  name  remained  in  use  oc- 
casionally on  coins  throughout  the  second  and  third 
centuries. 

Thus  Philadelphia  was  distinguished  from  the  other 
cities  by  several  characteristics :  first,  it  was  the  missionary 
city :  secondly,  its  people  lived  always  in  dread  of  a 
disaster,  "  the  day  of  trial " :  thirdly,  many  of  its  people 
went  out  of  the  city  to  dwell :  fourthly,  it  took  a  new 
name  from  the  Imperial  god. 


Philadelphia:  the  Missionary  City         399 

Philadelphia,  during  the  second  century  and  the  third, 
more  than  recovered  its  prosperity ;  and  under  Caracalla 
it  was  honoured  with  the  title  Neokoros  or  Temple- Warden 
in  the  State  reh"gion.  This  implies  that  a  Provincial  temple 
of  the  Imperial  cult  was  built  there  between  A.D.  211  and 
217  ;  and  henceforward  the  Commune  of  Asia  met  there 
occasionally  to  hold  some  of  its  State  festivals. 

The  history  of  the  Philadelphian  Church  was  distin- 
guished by  a  prophetess  Ammia,  who  flourished  apparently 
between  A.D.  100  and  160.  She  was  universally  recognised 
as  ranking  with  Agabus  and  the  four  daughters  of  Philip, 
as  one  of  the  few  in  the  later  time  who  were  truly  gifted 
with  the  prophetic  power.  She  remains  a  mere  name  to 
us,  preserved  in  Eusebius's  history,  v.,  17,  2. 

In  Byzantine  and  in  mediaeval  times  its  importance 
increased  steadily.  Civilisation  of  a  kind  became  more 
firmly  settled  in  the  heart  of  Asia  Minor  in  the  centuries 
following  the  foundation  of  Constantinople  as  capital  of 
the  Roman  Empire.  The  inner  lands  of  Asia  Minor 
became  more  important.  Their  trade  now  flowed  to  Con- 
stantinople rather  than  to  Rome ;  and  the  coast-towns  on 
the  .^gean  Sea  became  less  important  in  consequence. 
The  centre  of  gravity  of  the  world,  and  the  moving  forces 
of  civilisation,  had  shifted  towards  the  East ;  and  the  con- 
nection of  Asia  Minor  with  the  West  was  no  longer  of  such 
pre-eminent  importance  as  in  the  Roman  time.  The  Em- 
pire of  Rome  had  been  strongly  orientalised  and  transformed 
into  a  Roman -Asiatic  Empire,  on  whose  throne  sat  succes- 
sively Phrygians,  Isaurians,  Cappadocians,  and  Armenians. 
In  that  period  the  situation  of  Philadelphia  made  it  a  great 
city,  as  a  centre  of  wide  influence,  and  the  guardian  of  a 
doorway  in  the  system  of  communication. 


400     XXVII.  Philadelphia:  the  Missionary  City 

In  the  last  stages  of  the  struggle  between  the  decaying 
Empire  and  the  growing  power  of  the  Turks,  Philadelphia 
played  a  noble  part,  and  rose  to  a  lofty  pitch  of  heroism. 
Long  after  all  the  country  round  had  passed  finally  under 
Turkish  power,  Philadelphia  held  up  the  banner  of  Chris- 
tendom. It  displayed  all  the  noble  qualities  of  endurance, 
truth  and  steadfastness,  which  are  attributed  to  it  in  the 
letter  of  St.  John,  amid  the  ever  threatening  danger  of 
Turkish  attack  ;  and  its  story  rouses  even  Gibbon  to 
admiration. 

During  the  fourteenth  century  it  stood  practically  alone 
against  the  entire  Turkish  power  as  a  free,  self-govern- 
ing Christian  city  amid  a  Turkish  land.  Twice  it  was 
besieged  by  great  Turkish  armies,  and  its  people  reduced 
to  the  verge  of  starvation  ;  but  they  had  learned  to  defend 
themselves  and  to  trust  to  no  king  or  external  government ; 
and  they  resisted  successfully  to  the  end.  Philadelphia 
was  no  longer  a  city  of  the  Empire ;  and  the  Emperors 
regarded  rather  with  jealousy  than  with  sympathy  its  gal- 
lant struggle  to  maintain  itself  against  the  Turks.  At  last, 
about  1 379"  1 390  it  succumbed  to  a  combined  Turkish  and 
Byzantine  army ;  what  the  Turks  alone  had  never  been 
able  to  do  they  achieved  by  availing  themselves  of  the 
divisions  and  jealousy  among  the  Christians.  Since  that 
time  Philadelphia  has  been  transformed  into  the  Mohamme- 
dan town  of  Ala-Sheher,  the  reddish  city,  a  name  derived 
from  the  speckled,  red-brown  hills  around  it. 

In  the  last  period  of  its  freedom,  it  succeeded,  as  even 
the  stubbornly  conservative  and  unchanging  ecclesiastical 
lists  allowed,  to  the  primacy  among  the  bishoprics  ot 
Lydia,  which  had  belonged  for  more  than  a  thousand 
years  to  Sardis. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

THE  LETTER  TO  THE  CHURCH  IN  PHILADELPHIA. 

These  things  saith  he  that  is  holy,  he  that  is  true,  he  that  hath  the  key 
of  David,  he  that  openeth,  and  none  shall  shut,  and  that  shutteth,  and  none 
openeth. 

I  know  thy  works  :  behold  I  have  given  before  thee  an  opened  door,  which 
none  can  shut,  because  thou  hast  little  strength,  and  didst  keep  my  word, 
and  didst  not  deny  my  name.  Behold,  I  give  of  the  synagogue  of  Satan, 
of  them  which  say  they  are  fews,  and  they  are  not,  but  do  lie;  behold  I 
will  make  them  to  come  and  worship  before  thy  feet,  and  to  know  that  I 
have  loved  thee.  Because  thou  didst  keep  the  word  of  my  patience,  I  also 
will  keep  thee  from  the  hour  of  trial,  that  hour  which  is  to  come  upon  the 
whole  world,  to  try  them  that  dwell  upon  the  earth.  I  come  quickly  :  hold 
fast  that  which  thou  hast,  that  no  one  take  thy  crown. 

He  that  overcometh,  I  will  make  him  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  my  God, 
and  he  shall  go  out  thence  no  more :  and  I  will  write  upon  him  the  name 
of  my  God,  and  the  name  of  the  city  of  my  God,  the  new  Jerusalem,  which 
Cometh  down  out  of  heaven  from  my  God,  and  mine  own  new  name. 

He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  the  Spirit  saith  to  the  churches. 

The  address  of  the  Philadelphian  letter  is  conceived  with 
evident  reference  to  the  topics  mentioned  in  the  body  of 
the  letter,  and  to  the  character  and  past  history  of  the 
Church.  The  writer  is  *^  he  that  hath  tJte  key  of  David,  that 
openeth  and  none  shall  shut" ;  and  the  history  of  Phila- 
delphia and  its  Church  has  been  determined  in  the  past, 
and  will  in  the  future  be  determined,  mainly  by  the  fact 
that  "  /  have  set  before  thee  a  door  opened,  which  none  can 
shut ". 

The  writer  of  the  letter  is  "  he  that  is  true "  ;   and  the 

(401) 


402    XXVIII.  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Philadelphia 

Philadelphian  Church  "  kept  my  word  and  did  not  deny  my 
name"  but  confessed  the  truth,  whereas  its  enemies  are  they 
"  which  say  they  are  Jews,  and  they  are  not,  but  do  lie  ".  The 
writer  of  the  letter  is,  "  he  that  is  holy  "  ;  and  the  picture  of 
Philadelphia  that  is  given  in  the  letter  marks  it  beyond  all 
others  of  the  Seven  as  the  holy  city,  which  "  /  have  loved, " 
which  kept  my  word  and  my  injunction  of  endurance  (a 
commendation  twice  repeated). 

It  may  fairly  be  considered  a  complimentary  form  of 
address  when  the  writer  invests  himself  with  the  same 
character  that  he  praises  in  the  Church  addressed.  That 
is  also  the  case  in  the  Smyrnaean  letter :  there  he  "  which 
was  dead  and  lived''  addresses  the  Church  which,  as  he 
anticipates,  will  suffer  to  death  and  thereby  gain  the  crown 
of  life.  But  it  is  hardly  the  case  in  any  other  letter.  In 
addressing  Ephesus  and  Pergamum  and  Thyatira  the  writer 
speaks  as  holding  that  position  and  authority  and  power, 
which  they  are  by  their  conduct  losing.  The  writer  to 
Sardis  occupies  the  honourable  position  which  Sardis  has 
lost  beyond  hope  of  recovery.  The  writer  to  Laodicea  is 
faithful  and  true,  addressing  a  Church  which  is  reproached 
for  its  irresolution  and  want  of  genuineness. 

In  this  respect,  then,  the  letters  to  Smyrna  and  Phil- 
adelphia form  a  class  by  themselves  ;  and  the  analogy 
extends  to  other  characteristics.  These  two  Churches  are 
praised  with  far  more  cordiality  and  less  reserve  than 
any  of  the  others.  They  have  both  had  to  contend  with 
serious  difficulties.  The  Smyrnaean  Church  was  poor  and 
oppressed,  the  Philadelphian  Church  had  but  little  power. 
Before  both  there  is  held  forth  a  prospect  of  suffering  and 
trial ;  but  in  both  cases  a  triumphant  issue  is  confidently 
anticipated.     Life   for   Smyrna,   honour    and   dignity   for 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Philadelphia     403 

Philadelphia,  are  promised — not  for  a  residue  amid  the 
unfaithful,  as  at  Thyatira  or  Sardis,  but  for  the  Church  in 
both  cities.  It  is  an  interesting  coinc'dence  that  those  are 
the  two  cities  which  have  been  the  bulwark  and  the  glory 
of  Christian  power  in  the  country  since  it  became  Moham- 
medan ;  they  are  the  two  places  where  the  Christian  flag 
floated  latest  over  a  free  and  powerful  city,  and  where  even 
in  slavery  the  Christians  preserved  cohesion  among  them- 
selves and  real  influence  among  the  Turkish  conquerors. 

Another  analogy  is  that  in  those  two  letters  alone  is  the 
Jewish  Nationalist  party  mentioned.  Now  in  every  city 
where  there  was  a  body  of  Jews  settled,  either  as  resident 
strangers  or  as  citizens  of  the  town,  the  Nationalist  party 
existed  ;  and  there  can  hardly  be  any  doubt  that  in  every 
important  commercial  centre  in  the  Province  Asia  there  was 
a  body  of  Jews  settled.  In  every  one  of  the  Seven  Cities, 
we  may  be  sure,  there  was  a  Nationalist  Jewish  party,  op- 
posing, hating,  and  annoying  the  Jewish  Christians  and 
with  them  the  whole  Church  in  the  city.  If  that  diffi- 
culty is  mentioned  only  in  those  two  cities,  Smyrna  and 
Philadelphia,  the  natural  inference  is  that  it  had  been  more 
serious  in  them  than  in  the  others ;  and  that  can  only  be 
because  the  Jews  were,  for  some  reason  or  other,  specially 
influential  there.  Doubtless  the  reason  lay  in  their  num- 
bers and  their  wealth  ;  and  hence  the  weakness  and  poverty 
of  the  Christian  party  is  specially  mentioned  in  those  two 
Churches,  and  in  none  of  the  other  five. 

The  body  of  the  letter  begins  with  the  usual  statement 
that  the  writer  is  familiar  with  the  history  and  activity  of 
the  Philadelphian  Church  :  "  /  know  thy  works ".  Then 
follows,  as  usual,  an  outline  of  the  pa-^t  achievements  and 
conduct  of  that  Church ;  but  this  outline  is  couched  in  an 


404    XXVIII.  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Philadelphia 

unusual  form.  "  See^  I  have  given  before  thee  a  door  opened^ 
which  no  one  is  able  to  shut."  There  can  be  no  doubt 
what  the  '^opened  door"  means.  It  is  a  Pauline  metaphor, 
which  had  passed  into  ordinary  usage  in  the  early  Church. 
At  Ephesus  "  a  great  door  and  effectual  was  opened''  to  him 
(l  Cor.  xvi.  9).  At  Troas  also  "a  door  was  opened"  for 
him  (2  Cor,  ii.  12).  He  asked  the  Colossians  to  pray  "//z^/ 
God  may  open  unto  us  a  door  for  the  word,  to  speak  the 
mystery  of  Christ"  (Coloss.  iv.  3).  In  these  three  Pauline 
expressions  the  meaning  is  clearly  explained  by  the  con- 
text :  a  "  door  opened"  means  a  good  opportunity  for  mis- 
sionary work.  In  the  Revelation  this  usage  has  become 
fixed,  and  the  word  "  door "  is  almost  a  technical  term,  so 
that  no  explanation  in  the  context  is  thought  necessary ; 
unless  the  Pauline  use  had  become  familiar  and  almost 
stereotyped,  the  expression  in  this  letter  would  hardly  have 
been  possible. 

The  history  of  Philadelphia!!  activity  had  been  deter- 
mined by  its  unique  opportunity  for  missionary  work ; 
there  had  been  given  to  it  a  door  opened  before  it.  The 
expression  is  strong :  it  is  not  merely  "  /  have  set  before 
thee  a  door"  ;  it  is  "/  have  given  thee  {the  opportunity  of) 
a  door  {which  I  have)  opened  before  thee  ".  This  opportunity 
was  a  special  gift  and  privilege  and  favour  bestowed  upon 
Philadelphia.  Nothing  of  the  kind  is  mentioned  for  any 
other  city. 

The  situation  of  the  city  fully  explains  this  saying. 
Philadelphia  lay  at  the  upper  extremity  of  a  long  valley, 
which  opens  back  from  the  sea.  After  passing  Philadel- 
phia the  road  along  this  valley  ascends  to  the  Phrygian 
land  and  the  great  Central  Plateau,  the  main  mass  of  Asia 
Minor.    This  road  was  the  one  which  led  from  the  harbour 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Philadelphia     405 

of  Smyrna  to  the  north-eastern  parts  of  Asia  Minor  and  the 
East  in  general,  the  one  rival  to  the  great  route  connecting 
Ephesus  with  the  East,  and  the  greatest  Asian  trade-route 
of  mediaeval  times. 

The  Imperial  Post  Road  from  Rome  to  the  Provinces 
farther  east  and  south-east  coincided  for  some  considerable 
distance  with  this  trade-route.  Through  Troas,  Pergamum, 
Thyatira,  it  reached  Sardis ;  and  from  thence  it  was  iden- 
tical with  the  trade-route  by  Philadelphia  up  to  the  centre 
of  Phrygia,  Along  this  great  route  the  new  influence  was 
steadily  moving  eastwards  from  Philadelphia  in  the  strong 
current  of  communication  that  set  from  Rome  across 
Phrygia  towards  the  distant  East.  As  we  have  seen  in 
chapter  xv.,  it  had  not  yet  penetrated  beyond  the  centre 
of  Phrygia  into  the  north-east,  so  that  there  was  abundant 
opportunity  open  before  it. 

Philadelphia,  therefore,  was  the  keeper  of  the  gateway 
to  the  plateau  ;  but  the  door  had  now  been  permanently 
opened  before  the  Church,  and  the  work  of  Philadelphia 
had  been  to  go  forth  through  the  door  and  carry  the  gospel 
to  the  cities  of  the  Phrygian  land. 

It  is  not  stated  explicitly  that  Philadelphia  used  the 
opportunity  that  had  been  given  it ;  but  that  is  clearly 
implied  in  the  context.  The  door  had  been  opened  for  the 
Philadelphian  Church  by  Him  who  does  nothing  in  vain : 
He  did  this  because  the  opportunity  would  be  used. 

Here  alone  in  all  the  Seven  Letters  is  there  an  allu- 
sion to  the  fact  which  seems  to  explain  why  those  special 
Seven  Cities  were  marked  out  for  "  the  Seven  Churches  of 
Asia".  But  it  would  be  wrong  to  infer  that  Philadelphia 
alone  among  the  Seven  Cities  had  a  door  before  it.  Each 
of  the  Seven  Cities  stood  at  the  door  of  a  district.     In  truth 


4o6    XXVIII.  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Philadelphia 


every  Church  had  its  own  opportunity ;  and  all  the  Seven 
Churches  had  specially  favourable  opportunities  opened  to 
them  by  geographical  situation  and  the  convenience  of 
communication.  But  it  lies  in  the  style  and  plan  of  the 
Seven  Letters  to  mention  only  in  one  case  what  was  a 
common  characteristic  of  all  the  Seven  Cities ;  and  Phil- 
adelphia was  selected,  because  in  its  history  that  fact — its 
relation  to  the  cities  on  the  near  side  of  the  Central  Plateau 

had  been  the    determining  factor.      Philadelphia   must 

have  been  pre-eminent  among  the  Seven  Cities  as  the 
missionary  Church.  We  have  no  other  evidence  of  this ; 
but  the  Situation  marks  out  this  line  of  activity  as  natural, 
and  the  letter  clearly  declares  that  the  Philadelphian  Church 
acted  accordingly. 

The  construction  of  the  following  words  in  the  Greek  is 
obscure,  and  it  is  possible  to  translate  in  several  ways. 
But  the  rendering  given  in  the  Authorised  Version  (aban- 
doned unfortunately  in  the  Revised  Version)  must  be 
preferred :  **  /  know  thy  works ;  see^  I  have  given  thee  the 
opportunity  of  the  opened  door,  because  thou  hast  little  power ^ 
and  didst  keep  my  word  and  didst  not  deny  my  name". 
The  opened  door  is  here  explained  to  have  been  a  peculiar 
favour  granted  to  Philadelphia,  because  in  spite  of  its  want 
of  strength  it  had  been  loyal  and  true. 

If  the  Philadelphian  Church  had  little  power,  so  also  had 
the  city.  It  had  suffered  from  earthquakes  more  than  any 
other  city  of  all  Asia.  In  A.D.  17  a  great  earthquake  had 
caused  very  serious  damage ;  and  the  effects  lasted  for 
years  after.  The  trembling  of  the  earth  continued  for  a 
long  time,  so  that  the  inhabitants  were  afraid  to  repair  the 
injured  houses,  or  did  so  with  careful  provision  against 
collapse.     Two  or  three  years   later,  when  Strabo  wrote, 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Philadelphia     407 

shocks  of  earthquake  were  an  everyday  occurrence.  The 
walls  of  the  houses  were  constantly  gapinc^  in  cracks  ;  and 
now  one  part  of  the  city,  now  another  part,  was  suffering. 
Few  people  ventured  to  live  in  the  city ;  most  spent  their 
lives  outside,  and  devoted  themselves  to  cultivating  the  fer- 
tile Philadelphian  territory.  There  is  an  obvious  reference 
to  this  in  a  later  sentence  of  the  letter,  where  the  promise 
is  given  to  the  faithful  Philadelphians  that  they  shall  go 
out  thence  no  more.  Those  who  stayed  in  the  city  had 
to  direct  their  attention  to  the  motions  of  the  earth,  and 
guard  against  the  danger  of  falling  walls  by  devices  of 
building  and  propping.     Plate  XIII. 

Such  a  calamity,  and  the  terror  it  had  inspired,  naturally 
hindered  the  development  and  prosperity  of  Philadelphia. 
The  Emperor  Tiberius  indeed  treated  Philadelphia  and  the 
other  eleven  Asian  cities,  which  suffered  about  the  same 
time,  with  great  liberality ;  and  aided  them  to  regain  their 
strength  both  by  grants  of  money  and  by  remission  of 
taxation.  Though  at  the  moment  of  the  great  earthquake 
Sardis  had  suffered  most  severely,  Philadelphia  (as  is  clear 
from  Strabo's  account)  was  much  slower  in  recovering 
from  the  effects,  owing  to  the  long-continuance  of  minor 
shocks  and  the  reputation  of  the  city  as  dangerous.  The 
world  in  general  thought,  like  Strabo,  that  Philadelphia 
was  unsafe  to  enter,  that  only  a  rash  person  would  live  in 
it,  and  only  fools  could  have  ever  founded  it.  No  coins 
appear  to  have  been  struck  in  the  city  during  the  twenty 
years  that  followed  the  earthquake  ;  and  this  is  attributed 
by  numismatists  to  the  impoverishment  and  weakness  caused 
by  that  disaster. 

Gradually,  as  time  passed,  people  recovered  confidence. 
Subsequent   history  has   shown  that   the    situation   about 


4o8    XXVIII.  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Philadelphia 

A.D.  17-20,  as  described  by  Strabo,  was  unusual.  Phila- 
delphia has  not  been  more  subject  to  earthquakes  in  subse- 
quent time  than  other  cities  of  Asia.  So  far  as  our  scanty 
knowledge  goes,  Smyrna  has  suffered  more.  But  when  the 
Seven  Letters  were  written  the  memory  of  that  disastrous 
period  was  still  fresh.  People  remembered,  and  perhaps 
still  practised,  camping  out  in  the  open  country;  and  they 
appreciated  the  comfort  implied  in  the  promise,  verse  12, 
"  he  shall  go  out  thence  no  more  ".  They  appreciated,  also, 
the  guarantee  that,  as  a  reward  for  the  Church's  loyalty 
and  obedience,  "  /  also  will  keep  thee  from  the  hour  of  trial, 
that  hour  which  is  to  come  upon  the  whole  world,  to  try 
them  that  dwell  upon  the  earth  ".  The  Philadelphians  who 
had  long  lived  in  constant  dread  of  "  the  hour  of  trial*' 
would  appreciate  the  special  form  in  which  this  promise 
of  help  is  expressed. 

The  concluding  promise  of  the  letter  resumes  this  allu- 
sion. "  He  that  overcometh,  I  tuill  make  him  a  pillar  in  the 
temple  of  my  God,  and  he  shall  go  out  thence  no  more!'  The 
pillar  is  the  symbol  of  stability,  of  the  firm  support  on 
which  the  upper  part  of  the  temple  rests.  The  victor  shall 
be  shaken  by  no  disaster  in  the  great  day  of  trial  ;  and  he 
shall  never  again  require  to  go  out  and  take  refuge  in  the 
open  country.  The  city  which  had  suffered  so  much  and 
so  long  from  instability  was  to  be  rewarded  with  the  Divine 
firmness  and  steadfastness. 

That  is  not  the  only  gift  that  has  been  granted  the  Phil- 
adelphian  Church.  "  See  I  I  am  giving  of  the  Synagogue 
of  Satan,  who  profess  themselves  to  be  fews,  and  they  are 
not,  but  do  lie  :  see  !  I  will  make  them  come  and  do  reverence 
before  thy  feet  and  know  that  I  have  loved  thee"  This 
statement  takes  us  into  the  midst  of  the  long  conflict  that 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Philadelphia     409 

had  been  going  on  in  Philadelphia.  The  Jews  and  the 
Jewish  Christians  had  been  at  bitter  enmity ;  and  it  must 
be  confessed  that,  to  judge  from  the  spirit  shown  in  St. 
John's  references  to  the  opposite  party,  the  provocation 
was  not  wholly  on  one  side.  The  Jews  boasted  themselves 
to  be  the  national  and  patriotic  party,  the  true  Jews,  the 
chosen  people,  beloved  and  favoured  of  God,  who  were 
hereafter  to  be  the  victors  and  masters  of  the  world  when 
the  Messiah  should  come  in  His  kingdom.  They  up- 
braided and  despised  the  Jewish  Christians  as  traitors, 
unworthy  of  the  name  of  Jews,  the  enemies  of  God.  But 
the  parts  shall  soon  be  reversed.  The  promise  begins  in 
the  present  tense,  "  I  am  giving "  ;  but  it  breaks  off  in  an 
incomplete  sentence,  and  commences  afresh  in  the  future 
tense,  "  I  will  make  them  (who  scorned  you)  to  bow  in 
reverence  before  you,  and  to  know  that  you  (and  not  they) 
are  the  true  Jews  whom  I  have  loved  ". 

A  characteristic  which  distinguished  Philadelphia  from 
the  rest  of  the  Seven  Cities  was  that  it  alone  abandoned 
its  old  name  and  took  in  its  place  a  name  derived  from 
the  Imperial  religion.  The  others  were  too  proud,  appar- 
ently, of  their  own  ancient  and  historic  names  to  abandon 
them  even  for  an  Imperial  title.  Sardis,  indeed,  which  had 
suffered  very  severely  from  the  earthquake  in  A.D.  17,  and 
had  been  treated  with  special  kindness  by  Tiberius,  had 
assumed  the  title  Caesareia  then ;  but  Caesareia  was  a  mere 
epithet,  which  was  used  along  with  the  old  name  and  not 
in  place  of  it ;  and  the  epithet  soon  fell  into  disuse,  and  is 
never  used  on  coins  later  than  the  reign  of  Caligula  37-41. 
Some  other  less  important  cities  of  Asia  had  in  like  manner 
assumed  an  Imperial  name  in  place  of  their  own.  Thus, 
for  example,  Hierokome  in  Lydia  had  abandoned  its  name, 


4IO    XXVIII.  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Philadelphia 

and  in  gratitude  to  Tiberius  for  his  kindness  in  A.D.  17 
had  taken  the  name  Hierocassareia,  which  lasted  through 
the  subsequent  history  of  the  city.  Similarly,  Philadelphia 
assumed  the  name  Neokaisareia  and  disused  its  own. 

Now,  according  to  the  Roman  regulations,  it  was  not 
permitted  to  a  city  to  assume  an  Imperial  name  when  it 
pleased.  Such  a  name  was  regarded  as  highly  honourable, 
and  as  binding  the  city  closely  to  the  Imperial  service.  Per- 
mission had  to  be  sought  from  the  Senate,  which  governed 
Asia  through  the  Proconsul  whom  it  selected  and  sent  for 
the  purpose  ;  but,  of  course,  the  Emperor's  own  will  was 
decisive  in  the  matter,  and  the  Senate  would  never  grant 
permission  without  ascertaining  what  he  wished.  Tiberius 
had  crowned  his  kindness  to  the  city  by  permitting  it  to 
style  itself  Neokaisareia,  the  city  of  the  Young  Caesar,  w>., 
either  himself  or  Germanicus,  who  was  in  the  East  on  a 
special  mission  in  A.D.  17-19,  and  had  perhaps  been  the 
agent  through  whom  the  Imperial  bounty  was  bestowed. 
A  shrine  of  Germanicus  was  erected  then. 

Philadelphia  was  thereby  specially  consecrated  to  the 
service,  i.e.  the  worship,  of  the  Young  Caesar.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  a  shrine  of  the  Neos  Kaisar,  with  a  priest 
and  a  regular  ritual,  was  established  soon  after  A.D.  17  and 
not  later  than  19.  Philadelphia  wrote  on  itself  the  name 
of  the  Imperial  god,  and  called  itself  the  city  of  its  Imperial 
god  present  on  earth  to  help  it. 

Erected  in  the  time  of  Philadelphia's  great  poverty,  im- 
mediately after  the  disaster  that  had  tried  its  credit  and 
weakened  its  resources,  yet  raised  without  aid  from  the 
Commune  of  the  Province,  this  temple  of  the  Young  Caesar 
could  not  have  been  fit  to  compare  with  the  splendid 
buildings  for  the  Imperial  worship  in  Smyrna  or  Perg? 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Philadelphia     411 

mum  or  Ephesus.  As  the  worship  of  Germanicus  dis- 
appears completely  from  notice  after  A.D.  50,  and  as  the 
other  buildings  of  the  city  seem  to  have  been  in  a  perilous 
condition  for  years  after  the  shock  of  A.D.  17,  we  may 
conjecture  that  the  humble  temple  at  Philadelphia  had 
not  withstood  the  assaults  of  earthquake  and  the  slower 
influence  of  time :  moreover,  there  was  little  temptation 
to  maintain  the  worship  of  Germanicus  (who  did  not  rank 
among  the  regular  Imperial  gods)  after  the  death  of  his 
son  Caligula  and  his  brother  Claudius. 

It  may  therefore  be  fairly  gathered  that  the  new  shrine 
was  in  a  state  of  dilapidation  and  decay  when  the  Seven 
Letters  were  composed.  We  know  from  a  letter  of  Pliny 
to  Trajan,  that  the  same  thing  had  happened  to  a  temple 
of  Claudius,  which  stood  on  private  ground  in  the  wealthy 
city  of  Prusa  in  Bithynia ;  yet  the  soil  on  which  that  ruined 
temple  had  stood  was  declared  by  Trajan  to  be  for  ever 
exempted  from  profane  and  common  use.  Accordingly 
there  would  be  an  opening  for  a  telling  contrast,  such  as 
St.  John  so  frequently  aims  at,  between  the  shifting  facts 
of  ordinary  city  life  and  the  more  permanent  character 
of  the  analogous  institutions  and  promises  of  the  Divine 
Author. 

Here,  on  the  one  side,  were  the  ruined  temple  and  the 
obsolete  worship  of  the  Imperial  god  and  the  disused  new 
name  which  for  a  time  the  city  had  been  proud  to  bear — 
a  name  that  commemorated  a  terrible  disaster,  a  period  of 
trial  and  weakness,  and  a  dole  of  money  from  the  Imperial 
purse :  none  of  all  these  things  had  been  permanent,  and 
there  remained  from  them  nothing  of  which  the  city  could 
now  feel  proud. 

On  the  other  hand  the  letter  gives  the  pledge  of  safety 


412    XXVIII.  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Philadelphia 

from  the  hour  of  trial,  of  steadiness  like  the  pillar  of  a 
temple,  of  everlasting  guarantee  against  disaster  and  evic- 
tion, of  exaltation  above  the  enemies  who  now  contemn 
and  insult;  and  in  token  of  this  eternal  security  it  promises 
that  the  name  of  God  and  of  the  city  of  God  and  of  the 
Divine  Author  shall  b^  written  upon  the  victor.  When 
a  Philadelphian  read  those  words,  he  could  not  fail  to 
discover  in  them  the  reference  to  his  own  city's  history. 
Like  all  the  other  cities  he  read  the  words  as  an  engage- 
ment that  the  Author  will  do  far  better  for  his  own 
everything  that  the  enemy  tries  to  do  for  the  pagan  city. 

It  is  often  incorrectly  said  that  the  victor  receives  three 
names — of  God,  of  the  Church,  and  of  Christ ;  but  the  real 
meaning  is  that  a  name  is  written  on  him  which  has  all 
three  characters,  and  is  at  once  the  name  of  God,  the  name 
of  the  Church,  and  the  new  name  of  Christ.  What  that 
name  shall  be  is  a  mystery,  like  the  secret  name  written 
on  the  white  tessera  for  the  Pergamenian  victor. 

In  the  times  when  we  can  catch  a  glimpse  of  its  con- 
dition, Philadelphia  was  living  amid  ceaseless  dangers,  of 
old  from  earthquakes,  at  last  from  Turkish  attack.  It 
was  always  in  dread  of  the  last  hour  of  trial,  and  was 
always  kept  from  it.  It  stood  like  a  pillar,  the  symbol  of 
stability  and  strength.  In  the  middle  ages  it  struggled 
on,  a  small  and  weak  city  against  a  nation  of  warriors, 
and  did  not  deny  the  Name,  but  was  patient  to  the  end  ; 
and  there  has  been  written  on  its  history  a  name  that  is 
imperishable,  so  long  as  heroic  resistance  against  over- 
whelming odds,  and  persevering  self-reliance,  when  deserted 
by  the  world,  are  held  in  honour  and  remembered. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

LAODICEA :  THE  CITY  OF  COMPROMISE. 

Laodicea  was  founded  by  Antiochus  II.  (261-246  B.C  , 
As  a  Scleucid  foundation,  it  was  probably  similar  to  Th/a- 
tira  in  respect  of  consLitation  and  law ;  but  no  informatioo 
has  been  preserved.  It  was  situated  at  a  critical  point  in 
the  road  system  of  the  country.  The  great  road  from  the 
west  (from  Ephesus  and  from  Miletus)  ascends  the  Maeander 
Valley  due  eastwards,  until  it  enters  "the  Gate  of  Phrygia", 
In  the  Gate  are  a  remarkable  series  of  hot  springs,  and 
warm  mud-baths,  some  in  the  bed  of  the  Maeander,  others 
on  its  banks.^  "The  scene  before  the  traveller  as  he  tra- 
verses the  Gate  is  a  suitable  introduction  to  that  Phrygian 
land,  which  always  seemed  to  the  Greeks  something  strange 
and  unique." 

Immediately  above  this  point  lies  a  much  broader  valley, 
in  which  Lydia,  Phrygia,  and  Caria  meet.  The  Maeander 
comes  into  this  valley  from  the  north,  breaking  through  a 
ridt^e  of  mountains  by  a  gorge,  which,  though  singularly 
beautiful  in  scenery,  is  useless  as  a  ro  ^d-way.  The  road 
goes  on  to  the  east  up  the  glen  of  the  Lycu*?,  which  here 
joins  the  Maeander,  and  offers  an  easy  road-w^ay.  The 
Lycus  Glen  is  double,  containing  a  lower  and  an  upper  glen. 
Laodicea  is  the  city  of  the  lower  glen,  Colossae  of  the 
upper.  Due  north  of  La^^dicea,  between  the  Lycus  and  the 
Maeander,  stands  Hierap  lis,  in  a  very  conspicuous  situation, 

(413) 


414      XXIX.  Laodicea:  the  City  of  Compromise 

on  a  shelf  below  the  northern  mountains  and  above  the  valley, 
with  a  cascade  of  gleaming  white  cliffs  below  it,  topped  by 
the  buildings,  still  wonderfully  well  preserved,  of  the  old  city. 

The  glen  of  the  Lycus  extends  up  like  a  funnel  into  the 
flank  of  the  main  plateau  of  Anatolia.  Between  the  lower 
and  the  upper  glen  there  is  a  step  about  400  feet  high,  and 
again  between  the  upper  glen  and  the  plateau  there  is 
another  step  of  about  850  feet ;  but  both  can  be  surmounted 
easily  by  the  road.  The  lower  glen,  also,  slopes  upwards, 
rising  250  feet ;  and  the  upper  glen  slopes  much  more 
rapidly,  rising  550  feet.  In  this  way  the  rise  from  the 
Maeander  Valley,  550  feet  above  the  sea,  to  the  plateau, 
2,600  feet  (an  exceptionally  low  elevation),  is  achieved  far 
more  easily  by  this  path  than  at  any  other  point.  Hence 
the  Lycus  Glen  was  always  the  most  frequented  path  of 
trade  from  the  interior  to  the  west  throughout  ancient  time. 

Laodicea  was  placed  as  a  guard  and  door-keeper  on  this 
road,  near  the  foot  of  the  Lycus  Glen,  where  it  opens  on 
the  main  valley  of  the  Maeander.  The  hills  that  bound 
the  glen  on  the  south  run  up  northwards  to  an  apex,  one 
side  facing  north-west,  the  other  north-east ;  this  apex  lies 
between  the  river  Lycus  (the  Wolf),  and  its  large  tributary 
the  Kapros  (the  Boar),  which  comes  in  from  the  south  and 
passes  near  the  eastern  gate :  the  Lycus  is  about  three  miles 
to  the  north  of  the  city. 

Laodicea  was  placed  on  the  apex  ;  and  the  great  road 
from  the  coast  to  the  inner  country  passed  right  through 
the  middle  of  it,  entering  by  the  "  Ephesian  Gates  "  on  the 
west,  and  going  out  by  the  "  Syrian  Gates "  on  the  east. 
The  city  was  nearly  square,  with  the  corners  towards  the 
cardinal  points.  One  side,  towards  the  south-west,  was 
washed  by  the  small  river  Asopus.     Plates  XIV.,  XV. 


^^^m^fi;"' 


Laodicea:  the  City  of  Compromise         415 

The  hills  rise  not  more  than  one  hundred  feet  above  the 
glen ;  but  they  spring  sharply  from  the  low  and  level 
ground  in  front ;  and,  when  crowned  by  the  well-built 
fortifications  of  a  Seleucid  city,  they  must  have  presented 
a  striking  aspect  towards  the  glen,  and  constituted  an 
admirably  strong  line  of  defence.  Laodicea  was  a  very 
strong  fortress,  planted  right  on  the  line  of  the  great  road  ; 
but  it  had  one  serious  weakness.  It  was  entirely  de- 
pendent for  water-supply  (except  in  so  far  as  wells  may 
have  existed  within  the  walls,  of  which  there  is  now  no 
trace)  on  an  aqueduct  conducted  from  springs  about  six 
miles  to  the  south.  The  aqueduct  was  under  the  surface 
of  the  ground,  but  could  hardly  remain  unknown  to  a 
besieging  army  or  be  guarded  long  against  his  attack.  If 
the  aqueduct  was  cut,  the  city  was  helpless ;  and  this 
weakness  ruined  the  character  of  the  city  as  a  strong 
fortress,  and  must  have  prevented  the  people  from  ever 
feeling  secure  when  threatened  with  attack.     Plate  XVI. 

Planted  on  the  better  of  the  two  entrances  from  the 
west  to  the  Phrygian  land,  Laodicea  might  have  been 
expected  to  be  (like  Philadelphia,  which  commanded  the 
other)  a  missionary  city  charged  at  first  with  the  task 
of  spreading  Greek  civilisation  and  speech  in  barbarian 
Phrygia,  and  afterwards  undertaking  the  duty  of  spreading 
Christianity  in  that  country.  It  had,  however,  made  little 
progress  in  Hellenising  Phrygia.  As  has  been  stated  on 
p.  1 19  f.,  Phrygia  was  the  least  Hellenised  part  in  all  the 
Province;  as  a  whole,  it  still  spoke  the  native  tongue,  and 
was  little  affected  by  Greek  manners,  in  contrast  with 
Eastern  Lydia,  which  was  entirely  Greek-speaking  and 
Hellenised  (at  least  superficially).  Why  it  was  that  Lao- 
dicea had  failed  and  Philadelphia  had  succeeded  in  diflTusing 


4i6      XXIX.  Laodicea:  the  City  of  Compromise 

the  Greek  tongue  in  the  districts  immediately  around,  we 
have  no  means  of  judging.     But  such  was  the  case. 

Laodicea  was  a  knot  on  the  road-system.  Not  merely 
the  great  eastern  highway  and  central  route  of  the 
Roman  Empire,  as  already  described,  but  also  the  road 
from  Pergamum  and  the  Hermus  Valley  to  Pisidia  and 
Pamphylia  passed  through  its  gates  ;  while  a  road  from 
Eastern  Caria,  and  at  least  one  from  Central  and  West 
Phrygia,  met  in  the  city.  In  such  a  situation  it  only 
needed  peace  to  become  a  great  commercial  and  financial 
centre.  It  was,  as  Strabo  says,  only  a  small  city  before 
the  Roman  time  ;  but  after  Rome  kept  peace  in  the  land, 
it  grew  rapidly.  Cicero  brought  with  him  in  51  B.C. 
orders  to  be  cashed  in  Laodicea,  as  the  city  of  banking 
and  exchange. 

It  was  also  a  manufacturing  centre.  There  was  pro- 
duced in  the  valley  a  valuable  sort  of  wool,  soft  in  texture 
and  glossy  black  in  colour,  which  was  widely  esteemed. 
This  wool  was  woven  into  garments  of  several  kinds  for 
home  use  and  export  trade.  Small  and  cheap  upper 
garments,  called  hhnatia,  two  kinds  of  birros  (another  sort 
of  upper  garment),  one  of  native  style  and  one  in  imitation 
of  the  manufactures  of  the  Nervii,  a  tribe  in  French 
Flanders,  and  also  tunics  of  several  kinds,  were  made  in 
Laodicea ;  and  one  species  of  the  tunics,  called  trhnita, 
was  so  famous  that  the  city  is  styled  Trimitaria  in  the 
lists  of  the  Council  of  Chalcedon,  A.D.  451,  and  in  some 
other  late  documents. 

It  is  pointed  out  elsewhere  that  this  kind  of  glossy  black 
wool,  as  well  as  the  glossy  violet-dark  wool  produced  at 
Colossae,  was  probably  attained  by  some  system  of  breed- 
ing and   crossing.2     The  glossy   black   fleeces   have  now 


Laodicea  :  the  City  of  Compromise  4 1 7 

entirely  disappeared ;  but  they  were  known  in  compara- 
tively recent  times.  Pococke  in  the  eighteenth  century 
saw  a  great  many  black  sheep  ;  but  Chandler  in  the  early 
part  of  the  nineteenth  saw  only  a  few  black  and  glossy 
fleeces.  The  present  writer  has  seen  some  black -fleeced 
sheep,  but  the  wool  was  not  distinguished  by  the  gloss 
which  the  ancients  praised  and  prized  so  much.  Certain 
systems  of  breeding  animals,  and  improving  them  by  care- 
ful selection  and  crossing  with  different  stocks,  were  known 
to  the  native  Anatolian  population  in  early  times :  the 
rules  were  a  matter  of  religious  prescription,  and  guarded 
by  religious  awe,  like  almost  every  useful  art  in  that  primi- 
tive period.^     But  the  system  has  now  been  lost. 

Between  Laodicea  and  the  "  Gate  of  Phrygia "  lay  a 
famous  temple,  the  home  of  the  Phrygian  god  Men  Karou, 
the  Carian  Men.  This  was  the  original  god  of  the  valley. 
His  temple  was  the  centre  of  society  and  administration, 
intercourse  and  trade,  as  well  as  of  religion, — or,  rather, 
that  primitive  religion  was  a  system  of  performing  those 
duties  and  purposes  in  the  orderly  way  that  the  god  ap- 
proved and  taught  —  for  the  valley  in  which  the  Lycus  and 
the  Maiander  meet.  A  market  was  held  under  the  pro- 
tection of  his  sacred  name,  beside  or  in  his  own  precinct, 
at  which  the  people  of  the  valley  met  and  traded  with 
strangers  from  a  distance ;  and  this  market  continued  to 
meet  weekly  in  the  same  place  until  about  fifty  years  ago, 
when  it  was  moved  two  or  three  miles  north  to  the  new 
village  calktd  Serai-Keui.* 

In  connection  with  this  temple  there  grew  up  a  famous 
school  of  medicine.  The  school  seems  to  have  had  its  seat 
at  Laodicea,  and  not  at  the  temple  (which  was  about 
thirteen  miles  west  of  Laodicea  and  in  the  territory  of  the 


41 8      XXIX.  Laodicca  :  the  City  of  Compromise 

city  Attoudda) ;  and  the  names  of  the  leading  physicians 
of  the  school  in  the  time  of  Augustus  are  mentioned  on 
Laodicean  coins.  These  coins  bear  as  type  either  the 
serpent-encircled  staff  of  Asklepios  (Fig.  lo,  p.  174)  or  the 
figure  of  Zeus  (Fig.  35).  The  Zeus  who  was  worshipped 
at  Laodicea  was  the  Hellenised  form  of  the  old  native  god. 
Men  had  been  the  king  and  father  of  his  people.  When  the 
new  seat  of  Hellenic  civilisation  and  speech  was  founded 
in  the  valley,  the  people  continued  to  worship  the  god 
whose  power  was  known  to  be  supreme  in  the  district,  but 


Fig.  35. — The  God  of  Laodicea. 

they  imparted  to  him  something  of  their  own  character 
and  identified  him  with  their  own  god  Zeus.  Thus  in 
Sardis  and  elsewhere  the  native  god  became  Zeus  Lydios, 
"  the  Zeus  whom  the  Lydians  worship " ;  and  the  same 
impersonation  in  outward  appearance  was  worshipped  at 
Laodicea  (Fig.  35),  though  with  a  different  name  in  place 
of  Lydios.  The  Laodicean  god  was  sometimes  called 
Aseis,  perhaps  a  Semitic  word  meaning  "powerful".  If 
that  be  so,  it  would  imply  that  a  body  of  settlers  from 
Syria  were  brought  into  the  new  city  at  its  foundation, 


Laodicea :  the  City  of  Compromise  4 1 9 

and  that  they  had  imparted  an  element  of  their  own 
character  to  the  god  who  was  worshipped  in  common  by 
the  citizens  generally. 

This  Laodicean  school  of  physicians  followed  the  teach- 
ing "of  Herophilos  (330-250  B.C.),  who,  on  the  principle  that 
compound  diseases  require  compound  medicines,  began 
that  strange  system  of  heterogeneous  mixtures,  some  of 
which  have  only  lately  been  expelled  from  our  own  Phar- 
macopoeia".^ 

The  only  medicine  which  is  expressly  quoted  as  Lao- 
dicean seems  to  be  an  ointment  for  strengthening  the  ears 
made  from  the  spice  nard  ;  Galen  mentions  it  as  having 
been  originally  prepared  only  in  Laodicea,  though  by  the 
second  century  after  Christ  it  was  made  in  other  cities.' 
But  a  medicine  for  the  eyes  is  also  described  as  Phrygian : 
Galen  describes  it  as  having  the  form  of  a  tabloid  made 
from  the  Phrygian  stone,  while  Aristotle  speaks  of  it  as 
Phrygian  powder ;  the  two  are  probably  identical,  Aristotle 
describes  the  powder  to  which  the  tabloids  were  reduced 
when  they  were  to  be  applied  to  the  eyes.'^  There  can  be 
no  doubt  that  this  Phrygian  powder  came  through  Laodicea 
into  general  use  among  the  Greeks.  Laodicea  was  the 
one  famous  medical  centre  in  Phrygia  ;  and  to  the  Greeks 
"  Phrygian  "  often  stood  in  place  of  "  Laodicean  "  ;  thus,  for 
example,  the  famous  orator  of  the  second  century,  Pole- 
mon  of  Laodicea  was  called  simply  "the  Phrygian".  The 
Phrygian  stone  was  exported  after  a  time  to  all  parts  of 
the  Greek  and  Roman  world ;  and  as  the  powder  had 
now  become  common,  and  was  prepared  in  all  the  medical 
centres,  Galen  does  not  mention  it  as  being  made  in  any 
special  place ;  but  Laodicea  was  probably  the  oldest  home 
of  its  use,  so  far  as  the  Greeks  knew. 


420      XXIX.  Laodicea :  the  City  of  Compromise 

Jews  were  an  important  element  in  the  population  of 
this  district  in  the  Grsco-Roman  age.  Tn  62  B.C.  the 
Roman  governor  of  Asia  refused  to  permit  the  contribu- 
tions, which  were  regularly  sent  by  the  Asian  Jews  to 
Jerusalem,  to  go  out  of  the  country ;  and  he  seized  the 
money  that  had  been  collected,  over  twenty  pounds  weight 
of  gold  at  Laodicea  and  a  hundred  pounds  at  Apameia 
of  Phrygia.  Such  amounts  prove  that  Laodicea  was  the 
centre  of  a  district  in  which  a  large,  and  Apameia  of  one 
in  which  a  very  large,  Jewish  population  dwelt.  According 
to  the  calculation  of  M.  Th.  Reinach,  the  gold  seized  at 
Laodifea  would  amount  to  15,000  silver  drachms;  and  as 
the  annual  tax  was  two  drachms,  this  implies  a  population 
of  7,500  adult  Jewish  freemen  in  the  district  (to  which  must 
be  added  women  and  children). 

Of  the  Jews  in  Laodicea  itself  no  memorial  is  pre- 
served in  the  few  inscriptions  that  have  survived  ;  but  at 
Hierapolis  they  are  several  times  mentioned,  and  the 
Hierapolitan  Jews  may  be  taken  as  occupying  a  similar 
position  to  the  Laodicean.  There  were  Jews  in  Lao- 
dicea, which  was  such  an  important  centre  for  financial 
transactions  (Josephus,  Ant.,  xiv.,  10,  20)  ;  but  there  is 
no  evidence  whether  they  were  citizens  or  mere  resident 
strangers  (see  chap.  xii.).  If  they  were  citizens,  they 
must  have  been  one  element  in  the  population  planted  in 
the  city  by  Antiochus.  Thus  we  can  detect  in  the  original 
Laodicea  the  following  elements,  some  Greek  or  Mace- 
donian colonists,  probably  some  Syrians  and  also  some 
Jews,  in  addition  to  the  native  Phrygian,  Carian  and  Lydian 
population  of  the  district. 

To  these  there  were  added  later  some  new  classes  of 
citizens,  introduced    by  Eumenes    IL    or   by  Attalus    IL 


Laodicea :  the  City  of  Compromise  421 

When  Phrygia  was  given  to  Eumenes  by  the  Romans,  in 
189  B.C.,  it  was  soon  found  to  be  necessary  to  strengthen 
the  loyalty  of  the  Seleucid  colonies  by  introducing  into 
them  bodies  of  new  citizens  devoted  to  the  Pergamenian 
interests.  It  is  known  that  a  Tribe  Attalis  was  instituted 
in  Laodicea ;  and  we  must  infer  that  it  contained  some  or 
all  of  those  new  Pergamenian  settlers,  who  were  enrolled 
in  one  or  more  Tribes.  These  later  colonists  were  prob- 
ably in  part  Thracian  and  other  mercenaries  in  the  service 
of  the  Pergamenian  kings.^  Thus  Laodicea  and  the  Lycus 
Valley  generally  had  a  very  mixed  population.  No  better 
example  could  be  found  of  the  mixed  Graeco- Asiatic  cities 
described  in  chapter  xi. 

The  Jews  at  Hierapolis  were  organised  in  trade-guilds, 
the  purple-dyers,  the  carpet-makers,  and  perhaps  others. 
These  guilds  were  recognised  by  the  city,  so  that  money 
could  be  left  to  them  by  will.  "  The  Congregation  of  the 
Jews  "  was  empowered  to  prosecute  persons  who  had  vio- 
lated the  sanctity  of  a  Jewish  tomb,  and  to  receive  fines 
from  them  on  conviction  ;  and  it  had  its  own  public  office, 
"  the  Archives  of  the  Jews,"  in  which  copies  of  legal  docu- 
ments executed  by  or  for  Jews  were  deposited.  These 
rights  seem  to  imply  that  there  was  a  body  of  Jewish 
citizens  of  Hierapolis.^ 

The  Jews  of  Hierapolis  were  settled  there  by  one  of  the 
Graeco- Asiatic  kings,  for  their  congregation  is  in  one  in- 
scription called  "  the  Settlement  or  Katoikia  of  the  Jews," 
and  the  term  Katoikoi  was  appropriated  specially  to  the 
colonists  planted  by  those  kings  in  their  new  foundations. 

Hierapolis  seems  to  have  preserved  its  pre- Hellenic 
character  as  a  Lydian  city,  in  which  there  were  no  Tribes, 
but  only  the  freer  grouping  by  Trade-guilds.     The  feasts 


422      XXIX.  Laodicea :  the  City  of  Compromise 


of  Unleavened  Bread  and  of  Pentecost  are  mentioned  in 
inscriptions ;  and  by  a  quaint  and  characteristic  mixture  ot 
Greek  and  Jewish  customs,  money  is  left  to  the  two  Jewish 
guilds  (naturally,  by  Jews),  the  interest  of  which  is  to  be 
distributed  annually  on  those  feasts. 

Laodicean  Jews  may  be  estimated  on  the  analogy  of  the 
Hierapolitan  Jews  (p.  154). 

Laodicea  was,  of  course,  a  centre  of  the  Imperial  religion, 
and  received  the  Temple-Wardenship  under  Commodus,  A.D. 
1 80- 19 1.     Its  wide  trading  connection  is  attested  by  many 


Fig.  36. — The  Alliance  of  Laodicea  and  Smyrna. 

"alliance-coins,"  in  company  with  Ephesus,  Smyrna,  Perga- 
mum,  most  of  the  neighbouring  cities  (except  Colossae, 
which  was  too  humble),  and  some  distant  cities  like  Niko- 
media  and  Perinthus.  As  a  specimen  Fig.  36  shows  an 
agreement  between  Smyrna  and  Laodicea  :  the  latter  being 
represented  by  its  god  Zeus,  while  Smyrna  is  represented 
by  Zeus  Akraios  (p.  260)  who  sits  with  sceptre  in  left  hand, 
holding  out  on  his  right  the  goddess  Victory. 

There  is  no  city  whose  spirit  and  nature  are  more  difficult 
to  describe  than   Laodicea.     There  are  no  extremes,  and 


Laodicea  :  the  City  of  Compromise         423 

hardly  any  very  strongly  marked  features.  But  in  this 
even  balance  lies  its  peculiar  character.  Those  were  the 
qualities  that  contributed  to  make  it  essentially  the  success- 
ful trading  city,  the  city  of  bankers  and  finance,  which  could 
adapt  itself  to  the  needs  and  wishes  of  others,  ever  pliable 
and  accommodating,  full  of  the  spirit  of  compromise. 

The  Lycus  Valley,  in  a  larger  sense,  is  a  deep  cleft 
between  two  lofty  mountain  ridges.  On  the  south  are 
Salbakos  and  Kadmos,  both  slightly  over  8,000  feet  above 
the  sea;  on  the  north  is  a  lower  ridge  over  5,000  feet  in 
height.  The  ridges  converge  towards  the  east,  and  in  the 
apex  lies  the  ascent  to  the  plateau  already  described. 
Thus  the  valley  is  triangular,  the  base  being  the  opening 
on  the  Ma^ander  Valley.  Low  hills  occupy  the  southern 
half  of  this  greater  valley ;  these  hills  are  drained  by  the 
Kapros  and  the  Asopus ;  and  Laodicea  stands  on  their 
northern  apex,  about  half-way  between  the  two  mountain- 
ridges.  It  is  the  only  one  of  the  Seven  Cities  in  which  no 
relation  is  discernible  between  the  natural  features  that 
surround  it  and  its  part  and  place  in  history. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

THE  LETTER  TO  THE  CHURCH  IN  LAODICEA. 

These  things  saith  the  Amen,  the  faithful  and  true  witness,  the  beginning 
of  the  creation  of  God : 

I  know  thy  works,  that  thou  are  neither  cold  nor  hot :  I  would  thou 
wert  cold  or  hot.  So  because  thou  art  lukewarm,  and  neither  hot  nor  cold, 
I  will  spew  thee  out  of  my  mouth.  Because  thou  sayest,  I  am  rich,  and 
have  gotten  riches,  and  have  need  of  nothing ;  and  knowest  not  that  thou 
art  the  wretched  one  and  miserable  and  poor  and  blind  and  naked :  I  counsel 
thee  to  buy  of  me  gold  refined  by  fire,  that  thou  mayest  become  rich ;  and 
white  garments,  that  thou  mayest  clothe  thyself,  and  that  the  shame  of 
thy  nakedness  be  not  made  manifest;  and  eyesalve  to  anoint  thine  eyes, 
that  thou  mayest  see. 

The  tone  of  the  exordium  is  one  of  thoroughness,  con- 
sistency from  the  beginning  of  the  creation  of  God  to  the 
end  of  all  things,  a  consistency  that  springs  from  faithful- 
ness and  truth.  In  the  letter  itself  those  are  the  qualities 
in  which  Laodicea  is  lacking.  The  Laodicean  Church  is 
neither  one  thing  nor  another.  It  is  given  to  compromise. 
It  cannot  thoroughly  reject  the  temptations  and  allurements 
of  the  world.  And  therefore  it  shall  be  rejected  absolutely 
and  inexorably  by  Him  whose  faithfulness  and  truth  reject 
all  half-heartedness  and  compromise. 

The  characteristics  described  in  the  previous  chapter  are 
insufficient  to  give  a  clear  idea  of  the  special  and  distinc- 
tive character  of  Laodicea  as  a  city.  There  is  a  want  of 
definiteness  and  individuality  about  them.  They  do  not 
set  before  us  the  picture  of  a  city  recognisable  in  itself  and 

(424) 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Laodicea      425 

distinguishable  from  other  cities.  But  may  not  this  be  in 
itself  a  distinction  ?  Of  the  Seven  Cities  Laodicea  is  the 
one  which  is  least  determined  in  character,  the  one  of 
which  the  outline  is  least  clearly  and  sharply  defined  in 
history.  In  the  special  duties  imposed  on  it  as  the  end 
and  aim  of  its  foundation,  to  guard  a  road  and  gateway, 
and  to  be  a  missionary  of  Greek  language  and  culture  in 
the  Phrygian  land,  it  proved  unsuccessful.  The  one  respect 
in  which  it  stands  forth  pre-eminent  is  that  it  is  the  adapt- 
able city,  able  to  suit  itself  to  the  needs  of  others,  because 
it  has  no  strongly  pronounced  character  of  its  own.  Such 
a  nature  would  be  suited  for  the  successful  commercial  city, 
which  it  was.  But  such  a  nature  would  least  commend  the 
city  to  St.  John.  Laodicea  must  appear  to  him  undecided, 
devoid  of  initiative,  pliable,  irresolute,  and  unsatisfactory. 

The  ordinary  historian  would  probably  not  condemn 
the  spirit  of  Laodicea  so  strenuously  as  St.  John  did. 
In  the  tendency  of  the  Laodiceans  towards  a  policy  of 
compromise  he  would  probably  see  a  tendency  towards 
toleration  and  allowance,  which  indicated  a  certain  sound 
practical  sense,  and  showed  that  the  various  constituents 
of  the  population  of  Laodicea  were  well  mixed  and  evenly 
balanced.  He  would  regard  its  somewhat  featureless  char- 
acter and  its  easy  regular  development  as  proving  that  it 
was  a  happy  and  well-ordered  city,  in  whose  constitution 
"  the  elements  were  kindlier  mixed "  than  in  any  other 
city  of  Asia.  He  would  consider  probably  that  its  success 
as  a  commercial  city  was  the  just  reward  of  the  strong 
common-sense  which  characterised  its  people.  St.  John, 
however,  was  not  one  of  those  who  regarded  a  successful 
career  in  trade  and  money-making  as  the  best  proof  of 
the  higher  qualities  of  citizenship.     The  very  characteristics 


426     XXX.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Laodicea 

which  made  Laodicea  a  well-ordered,  energetic  and  pushing 
centre  of  trade,  seemed  to  him  to  evince  a  coldness  of 
nature  that  was  fatal  to  the  highest  side  of  human  character, 
the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  and  enthusiasm. 

An  account  which  has  been  given  elsewhere  ^  of  the 
development  of  Christianity  in  Eumeneia,  a  city  in  the 
Laodicean  circuit  where  Christian  inscriptions  are  specially 
numerous,  may  be  quoted  here  as  an  illustration  of  the 
probable  character  of  the  whole  district  of  Laodicea.  The 
evidence  proves  that  Eumeneia  was  to  a  large  extent  a 
Christian  city  in  the  third  century ;  and  there  is  consider- 
able probability  that  Eumeneia  was  the  city  whose  fate  is 
recorded  by  Eusebius  and  Lactantius,  two  excellent  au- 
thorities, practically  contemporaries  of  the  event.  In  this 
city  people  and  magistrates  alike  were  Christian  in  the 
early  years  of  the  fourth  century.  During  the  last  great 
persecution,  A.D.  303-313,  the  population,  when  threatened, 
collected  at  the  Church  (which  was  in  itself  a  defiance  of 
the  Imperial  orders).  They  were  surrounded  by  a  ring  of 
soldiers,  and  the  usual  alternative  was  offered,  compliance 
or  death.  In  ordinary  circumstances,  doubtless,  some  or 
even  many  of  them  would  have  lacked  the  boldness  to 
choose  death  ;  but  it  lies  in  human  nature  that  the  general 
spirit  of  a  crowd  exercises  a  powerful  influence  on  the  in- 
dividuals who  compose  it ;  and  even  those  who,  taken 
singly,  might  have  compromised  with  their  conscience,  and 
shrunk  from  a  terrible  death,  accepted  it  when  inspired 
with  the  courage  of  the  whole  body.  The  entire  people 
was  burned  with  the  church;  and  they  died  "calling  upon 
the  God  over  all".  Eusebius  writes  as  an  epitaph  over 
their  ashes  words  that  read  like  a  memory  of  the  formula 
by  which  the  Christian   character  of  the  epitaphs  on  the 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Laodicea     427 

tombs  of  their  predecessors  during  the  third  century  has 
been  recognised. 

Those  inscriptions,  by  which  we  trace  the  character  of 
that  Christian  city  about  A.D.  240-300,  convey  the  impres- 
sion that  there  was  no  violent  break  between  Greek  and 
Christian  culture  in  Eumeneia,  as  it  existed  in  that  period. 
There  is  no  sign  of  bitterness.  The  monuments  place 
before  us  a  picture  of  rich  and  generous  development,  of 
concession,  and  of  liberality,  through  which  people  of  diverse 
thought  were  practically  reconciled  in  a  single  society ; 
they  exemplify  the  accommodation  of  two  hostile  religions 
in  a  peaceful  and  orderly  city.  *This  was  impossible  for 
the  Christians  without  some  sacrifice  of  strict  principle  to 
the  exigencies  of  the  situation  and  the  demands  of  the 
Imperial  government.  The  spirit  of  accommodation  and 
even  of  compromise  must  have  been  strong  in  Eumeneia. 

The  result  has  been  told  :  it  was,  first,  the  practically 
universal  triumph  of  Christianity  in  the  city,  and  thereafter 
the  extermination  of  the  Christian  population  in  a  great 
massacre.  In  their  death  no  signs  can  be  detected  of  the 
spirit  of  compromise  which  they  had  showed  in  practical 
matters  during  their  life. 

In  view  of  these  facts  about  Eumeneia,  and  a  somewhat 
similar  history  in  Apameia,  another  city  of  the  Laodicean 
circuit,^  we  may  fairly  regard  the  spirit  of  compromise, 
which  is  stigmatised  in  the  Laodicean  letter,  as  having 
been  common  to  the  district  as  a  whole  and  as  capable 
of  showing  at  need  a  finer  side  than  is  recognised  in  the 
letter. 

The  Laodicean  letter  is  the  only  one  in  which  we  have 
recognised  the  applicability  of  the  letter  to  the  district  or 
circuit  which  was  connected  with  the  city.     There  seemed 


428     XXX.    The  Letter  to  the  Cktirch  in  Laodicea 

always  to  the  Greek  mind  to  be  a  certain  homogeneity  of 
spirit  characterising  Phrygia  as  a  whole,  which  they  regarded 
with  some  contempt  as  an  indication  of  lower  intelligence, 
contrasted  with  the  strong  development  of  individual  char- 
acter in  the  Greek  cities.  A  tendency  to  compromise  in 
religion  was,  indeed,  never  regarded  as  characteristic  of  the 
Phrygian  spirit,  which  was  considered  prone  to  excess  in 
religious  devotion :  the  extremest  examples  of  horrible 
actions  under  the  stimulus  of  religion,  such  as  self-mutila- 
tion, were  associated  in  the  ancient  mind  with  Phrygia. 
But  the  tendency  to  excess  inevitably  results  in  failure  to 
reach  even  the  mean.  The  Church  blamed  the  extravagant 
Phrygian  provocation  of  martyrdom,  because  frequently 
overstrained  human  nature  failed  in  the  supreme  test,  and 
the  would-be  martyr,  overconfident  in  his  powers,  became 
a  renegade  in  the  hour  of  trial. 

It  is  characteristic  of  a  city  devoted  to  commercial  interests 
and  the  material  side  of  life,  that  the  Church  of  Laodicea  is 
entirely  self-satisfied.  It  says,  as  the  city  said  in  A.D.  60, 
when  it  recovered  its  prosperity  after  the  great  earthquake 
without  any  of  that  help  which  the  Imperial  government 
was  generally  ready  to  bestow,  and  which  the  greatest  cities 
of  Asia  had  always  been  ready  to  accept,  "  /  have  grown 
rich,  and  have  need  of  nothing".  It  has  never  seen  its  real 
condition  :  it  is  poor  and  blind  and  naked. 

There  is  only  one  way  open  to  it.  It  must  cease  to  trust 
to  itself.  It  must  recognise  that  it  is  poor,  and  seek  riches 
where  the  true  riches  can  be  found.  Its  banks  and  its 
wealthy  money  changers  can  give  it  only  false  money  ;  but 
the  Author  can  sell  it  "gold  refined  by  fire".  He  does  not 
give  this  gold  for  nothing :  it  must  be  bought  with  a  price, 
the  price  of  suffering  and  truth,  fidelity  and  martyrdom. 


The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Laodicea     429 

The  Church  must  recognise  that  it  is  naked,  and  seek  to 
be  clad.  Its  manufacturers  cannot  help  it  with  their  fine 
glossy  black  and  violet  garments,  which  they  sell  and 
export  to  the  whole  world.  Only  white  garments,  such 
as  the  faithful  in  Sardis  wear,  will  be  of  any  use  to  cover 
their  shame  ;  and  those  are  sold  only  by  the  Author.  They 
too  must  be  bought  with  a  price. 

The  Laodicean  Church  must  also  learn  that  it  is  blind, 
but  yet  not  incurably  blind.  It  is  suffering  from  disease, 
and  needs  medical  treatment.  But  the  physicians  of  its 
famous  medical  school  can  do  nothing  for  it.  The  tab- 
loids which  they  prescribe,  and  which  are  now  used  all 
over  the  civilised  world,  to  reduce  to  powder  and  smear 
on  the  eyes,  will  be  useless  for  this  kind  of  ophthalmia. 
The  Laodiceans  must  buy  the  tabloid  from  the  Author 
himself,  at  the  price  of  suffering  and  steadfastness. 

The  description  of  the  medicine  here  mentioned  is  ob- 
scured by  a  mistranslation.  It  was  not  an  ointment,  but 
a  kollyrium,  which  had  the  form  of  small  cylinders  com- 
pounded of  various  ingredients,  including  some  mineral 
elements,  and  was  used  either  by  simple  application  or 
by  reduction  to  a  powder  to  be  smeared  on  the  part. 
The  term  used  by  St.  John  is  the  same  that  Galen  uses  to 
describe  the  preparation  of  the  Phrygian  stone  employed 
to  strengthen  weak  eyes.^ 

The  Laodicean  Church  is  the  only  one  which  is  absolutely 
and  wholly  condemned.  Not  even  a  faithful  remnant  is 
left,  such  as  even  in  Sardis,  the  dead  Church,  kept  itself 
pure  and  white.  No  exception  is  allowed  in  Laodicea: 
advice  is  given,  but  there  is  no  appearance  that  it  will  be 
taken.  The  weakness  of  the  city  will  become  apparent  in 
the  testing. 


430     XXX.    The  Letter  to  the  Church  in  Laodicea 

In  the  rest  of  the  letter  there  is  no  recognisable  allusion 
to  the  character  or  circumstances  of  an  individual  Church. 
The  conclusion  is  rather  an  epilogue  to  the  Seven  Letters, 
treated  as  a  literary  whole,  than  an  integral  part  of  the 
Laodicean  letter. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

EPILOGUE. 

As  many  as  I  love,  I  reprove  and  chasten :  be  zealous  therefore,  and 
repent.  Behold,  I  stand  at  the  door  and  knock  :  if  any  man  hear  my  voice 
and  open  the  door,  I  will  come  in  to  him,  and  will  sup  with  him,  and  he 
with  me. 

He  that  overcometh,  I  will  give  to  him  to  sit  down  with  me  in  my  throne, 
as  I  also  overcame,  and  sat  down  with  my  Father  in  his  throne. 

He  that  hath  an  ear,  let  him  hear  what  he  Spirit  saith  to  the  churches. 

The  first  sentence  in  what  we  take  to  be  an  epilogue  might 
quite  well  be  regarded  as  part  of  the  Laodicean  letter.  The 
words  seem  at  first  to  express  naturally  the  reaction  from 
the  sharp  censure  conveyed  in  the  preceding  sentences.  But, 
as  we  read  on,  we  become  conscious  that  all  reference  to 
the  Laodiceans  has  ceased,  and  that  the  writer  is  drifting 
farther  and  farther  away  from  them.  The  final  promise 
has  no  apparent  relation  to  their  situation  and  character. 
Now,  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  Seven  Letters  were 
not  real  letters,  intended  to  be  sent  separately  to  Seven 
Churches,  but  form  one  literary  composition,  it  becomes 
evident  that  an  epilogue  to  the  whole  is  needed,  and  that 
this  is  the  epilogue.  One  might  hesitate  where  the  Lao- 
dicean letter  ends  and  the  epilogue  to  the  Seven  Letters 
begins.  The  writer  passes  almost  insensibly  from  the  one 
to  the  other.  But  it  seems  best  to  suppose  that  the  epilogue 
begins  at  the  point  where  clear  reference  to  the  circumstances 
and  nature  of  Laodicea  ceases.     And  when  the  transition  is 

(430 


432  XXXI.  Epilogue 


placed  here  a  difficulty  is  eliminated.  After  the  extremely 
sharp  condemnation  of  Laodicea,  it  seems  hardly  consistent 
to  give  it  the  honour  which  is  awarded  to  the  true  and 
courageous  Church  of  Philadelphia  alone  among  the  Seven, 
and  to  rank  it  among  those  whom  the  Author  loves.  We 
can  understand  why  Philadelphia,  the  true  city,  the  mission- 
ary Church,  in  danger  even  yet  ever  enduring,  should  receive 
that  honourable  mention;  but  we  cannot  understand  why 
Philadelphia  and  Laodicea  should  be  the  only  two  that 
receive  it. 

But,  as  part  of  the  epilogue,  this  first  sentence  unites  all 
the  Seven  Churches  and  the  entire  Church  of  Christ  in  one 
loving  warning :  the  Seven  Letters  have  conveyed  much 
reproof  and  chastisement,  but  the  Author  reproves  and 
chastens  those  whom  he  loves.  The  admirable  suitability 
of  the  remainder  as  an  epilogue  is  a  matter  of  expository 
interpretation  rather  than  of  the  historical  study  at  which 
the  present  book  has  aimed. 

In  a  few  words  the  historical  epilogue  to  this  historical 
study  is  summed  up. 

Among  the  Seven  Churches  two  only  are  condemned 
absolutely  and  without  hope  of  pardon :  Sardis  is  dead : 
Laodicea  is  rejected.  And  among  the  Seven  Cities  two 
only  are  at  the  present  day  absolutely  deserted  and  unin- 
habited, Sardis  and  Laodicea.  Two  Churches  only  are 
praised  in  an  unreserved,  hearty,  and  loving  way,  Smyrna 
and  Philadelphia.  And  two  cities  have  enjoyed  and  earned 
the  glory  of  being  the  champions  of  Christianity  in  the 
centuries  of  war  that  ended  in  the  Turkish  conquest,  the 
last  cities  to  yield  long  after  all  others  had  succumbed 
Smyrna  and  Philadelphia.  Other  two  Churches  are  treated 
with  mingled  praise  and  blame,  though  on  the  whole  the 


Epilogue  433 

praise  outweighs  the  blame ;  for  their  faith,  steadfastness, 
works,  love,  service  and  patience  are  heartily  praised, 
though  they  have  become  tainted  with  the  false  Nicolaitan 
principles.  These  are  Pergamum  and  Thyatira,  both  of 
which  still  exist  as  flourishing  towns.  One  Church  alone 
shall  be  moved  from  its  place ;  and  Ephesus  was  moved  to 
a  site  about  three  kilometres  distant,  where  it  continued 
an  important  city  until  comparatively  recent  time,  though 
now  it  has  sunk  to  an  insignificant  village. 


NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  I. 

'  Thi  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  pp.  364  ff.,  437,  etc. ;  "  Roads  and 
Travel  in  New  Testament  Times,"  in  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the 
Bible,  vol.  v.  ;  Miss  Caroline  Skeel,  Travel  in  First  Century. 

^St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  pp.  18,  376,  etc. 

^Even  in  Palestine  where  they  were  in  permanent  possession  of 
part  of  the  country  for  a  considerable  time,  written  memorials  of 
them  are  extremely  rare ;  one  occurs  in  Quart.  Statement,  Pal.  Expl. 
Fund,  1901,  p.  408,  and  another  is  there  quoted  on  p.  409. 

*  Expositor t  1888,  viii.,  pp.  407-8. 
^Expositor,  1888,  viii.,  p.  407. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  II. 

*  Conington's  Translation. 

2  See  the  quotations  from  Philo,  Pliny,  Appian,  Plutarch,  Epictetus, 
Aristides,  etc.,  given  by  Friedlander  in  the  opening  pages  of  his  Rom. 
Sittengeschichte,  ii. 

'Paton  and  Hicks'  Inscriptions  of  Cos,  p.  xxxiii.  The  statement  is 
stronger  than  the  present  writer  would  have  made ;  but  Canon  Hicks 
is  one  of  the  highest  European  authorities  on  that  subject  and  period. 

*Th6  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  361  ff. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  III. 

'Professor  W.  Lock  criticised  the  narrowness  of  Professor  Deiss- 
mann'ii  classification  in  a  paper  read  at  the  English  Church  Congress, 
29th  September,  1898. 

^  Colossians  iv.  5,  as  interpreted  in  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  p.  149. 

'Lightfoot's  5.  Clement  of  Rome,  i,  p.  359  f . ;  Church  in  the  Roman 
Empire,  p.  368. 

*0n  the  character  of  the  inns  see  "  Roads  and  Travel  in  New  Tes- 
tament Times,"  in  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  v.,  p.  393  f. 
On  messengers  and  letters,  ibid.,  p.  400  f. 

'  Cumont,  The  Mysteries  of  Mithra,  p.  40  fF. 

(435) 


436  Notes  on   Chapters  IV.,  V.,  VI. 


NOTE  ON  CHAPTER  IV. 

*  This  paragraph  sums  up  in  two  sentences  the  history  of  Anatolian 
religion  given  in  an  article  on  "  The  Religion  of  Greece  and  Asia 
Minor"  in  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  v.,  p.  109  ff . :  the 
history  begins  in  utility  and  life,  and  ends  in  deterioration  and  death. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  V. 

*The  quotations  are  all  taken  from  a  great  inscription,  recording 
the  decree  of  the  Commune  of  Asia  instituting  the  new  Augustan 
Year,  and  ordered  to  be  put  up  in  all  the  leading  cities,  9-4  B.C.  :  it  is 
published  in  Mittheilungen  Inst.  A  then,  1889,  p.  275  ff. 

^  The  character  and  education  of  the  great  cities  in  Asia  are  de- 
Bcribed  in  chapter  xi. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  VI. 

*  The  inscription  was  published  first  by  Wagener,  Inscr.  Recueillies 
en  Asie  Mineure,  No.  i :  he  reads,  "first  of  Daisios"  (A  for  A).  The 
Smyrna  Mouseion,  No.  11,  reads  A.  We  carefully  verified  the  text 
in  1884. 

^Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  i.,  p.  293.  This  hieron  is  prob- 
ably the  hieron  of  Apollo  in  the  Milyan  Mount,  described  by  Aristides, 
Or.,  xxiii.,  vol.  i.,  pp.  451,  490.  On  Pessinus,  Histor.  Commentary  on 
Galatians,  p.  62. 

*  *'  Religion  of  Greece  and  Asia  Minor  "  in  Hastings'  Dictionary  of 
the  Bible,  v.,  p.  128. 

*  "  Religion  of  Greece  and  Asia  Minor,"  p.  121. 

"In  this  description  (Journal  of  Theological  Studies,  vol.  iii.,  p.  514) 
the  words  "subject  to  changes  dependmg  on"  is  another  way  (and 
probably  a  better  way)  of  expressing  what  I  have  put  in  the  form 
"touched  or  affected  by".  I  intentionally  wrote  out  all  that  I  have 
said  before  looking  at  Professor  Moulton's  article,  though  I  resolved 
to  read  it  before  printing  my  own  words,  and,  if  it  seemed  needful, 
to  correct  my  words  from  him.  I  found  we  were  to  a  great  degree 
in  agreement  on  the  facts,  though  I  am  not  convinced  by  his  argu- 
ment as  to  a  Zoroastrian  origin. 

'  An  example  in  ch.  zi.,  p.  136. 


Notes  on  Chapters   VII.,  VIII. ,  IX.        437 


NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  VII. 

*  Lightfoot's  translation  of  the  extracts  from  Clement  and  Ignatius 
is  usually  quoted,  especially  where  it  is  important  to  show  that  the 
words  are  not  pressed  to  suit  the  views  expressed  in  the  present  work. 

^The  leading  Church  of  a  Province  was  usually  that  of  the  Roman 
capital  of  the  Province ;  but  this  was  not  the  case  in  Asia,  where 
Pergamum  was  still  the  official  capital,  but  Ephesus  was  the  leading 
city  and  the  seat  of  the  leading  Church. 

'The  text  of  Trail.  3  is  not  quite  certain.  Lightfoot  is  here  fol- 
lowed. 

*A  commentary  on  the  expression  "slave"  in  this  sentence  may 
be  found  below  in  ch.  xiii.,  p.  159. 

'  This  passage  is  often  strangely  misinterpreted  (even  by  Lightfoot) 
as  implying  the  opposite :  wtz.,  that  St.  Paul  was  the  first  Apostle 
to  visit  Rome. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  VIII. 

*  Mommsen,  Romisches  Strafrecht  (1899),  pp.  974  ff.,  957,  1047. 
» Ibid.,  p.  575  ff. 

» Ibid.f  pp.  949  ff.,  1046. 

On  p.  30, 1.  31,  refer  to  Digest,  48,  19,  23. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  IX. 

'  See  p.  323. 

'Philostr.,  Vit.  Ap.  Tyan.,  iv.,  lo;  vii.,  zi,  2  ;  viii.,  7,  27  £ 

^  Ibid.,  vi.,  41. 

*  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  200. 

*Mr.  Anderson  Scott  in  Century  Bible,  Revelation. 

"Ada  Theodoti,  in  Ruinart  Acta  Sincera,  is  depreciated  on  uncon- 
vincing grounds  in  Analccta  Bollandiana,  xxii.,  320  f. 

'  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  ii.,  506  ff. 

^  Ibid.,  ii.,  pp.  566-7. 

"The  inscription  was  first  published  in  the  Revue  des  Etudes 
Anciennes,  1901,  p.  276 ;  and  a  correction  of  one  letter  A  for  A  was 
made  in  the  same  journal,  1902,  p.  82,  by  M.  Chapot,  and  accepted 
by  the  present  writer,  1902,  p.  269. 

^^  Three  of  these  certificates  have  been  found  in  Egypt,  and  are 
published  in  recent  times,  Oxyrhynchus  Papyri,  iv.,  p.  49. 


438  Notes  on  Chapters  X,  XL,  XII. 


NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  X. 

'  In  one  of  the  later  cases  the  form  is  "  The  Romans  and  Hellenes 
in  Asia,"  a  step  in  Romanising  the  older  idea  {Ath.  Mitth.,  1891,  p. 

145)- 

'  Dr.  Kenyon,  Classical  Review,  1893,  p.  476,  gives  the  date  41  b.c.  ; 
Dr.  Brandis,  Hermes,  1897,  P-  509>  shows  that  33  is  more  probable, 

'St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  ch.  vi.,  p.  132  ff. 

*  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  i.,  pp.  131, 151  f. ;  Cibyra,  ib.,  i.,  p. 
365. 

*  A  koinon  of  Isauria  is  not  proved,  but  is  probable* 
•See  note  11  to  chapter  xvii. 

'  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  192. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XI. 

^  A  Thracian  soldier  in  2  Maccabees  xii.  35.  Thyatira  was  a  Mace- 
donian colony.  Laodicea  and  Philadelphia  perhaps  had  Thracian 
and  Mysian  colonists :  see  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  i.,  pp.  34, 
200. 

^Impressions  of  Turkey,  p.  256. 

'  See  pp.  146  f.,  234  f. 

*This  idea  is  illustrated  at  greater  length  in  two  articles  on  "The 
Statesmanship  of  Paul  "  in  the  Contemporary  Review,  1901,  March  and 
April. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XII. 

*  See  generally  Schiirer  in  Hastings'  Dictionary,  v.,  p.  91  fF. 

'  On  the  degree  to  which  the  Jews  of  Asia  Minor  were  Christianised, 
compare  St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  p.  141  ff. ;  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia, 
ii.,  chap.  XV. 

'  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  ii.,  pp.  667  ff.,  538,  649  fF. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  675  f. 

*  Josephus,  Ant.  Jud.,  xiv.,  10,  23  (§  258);  Acts  xvi.  13. 

®The  statements  made  in  the  recognised  authorities  are  different; 
but  we  know  that  Jews  were  citizens  in  the  cities  founded  (or  re- 
founded)  by  Seleucus  I.  and  in  the  only  foundation  by  Antiochus  II. 
of  whose  principles  any  record  is  preserved  (Josephus,  Ant.  fud.,  xii., 
3,  2,  §  125  f.  ;  Apion,  ii.,  4),  and  this  may  confidently  be  regarded  as 
proving  the  ordinary  Seleucid  policy.  It  is  a  mistake  to  take  the 
examples  quoted  by  Josephus,  c.  Apion,  ii.,  4,  as  a  complete  list,  and 
infer  that  the  Jews  had  the  citizenship  only  in  Alexandria,  Antioch, 


Notes  on  Chapters  XI L^  XIII.  439 

and  the  Ionian  cities.  Willrich  differs,  Beitr.  z.  alt.  Gesch.,  iii.,  397, 
Juden  u.  Gr.,  126  ff. ;  but  he  seems  not  to  have  thought  of  the  case  in 
its  real  nature. 

'  Various  other  terms  were  employed  in  different  cities. 

*  /**XP'  ^^^  avTutv  Tj  <Pv\f)  TTfv  irpoa-Tjyopiav  €t;^e  "  MaKtiovts"  Joseph., 
Apion,  i'u,  4,  giving  definition  and  precision  to  the  words  oi  Bell.  Jud., 
ii.,  18,  7  (§  488),  xP'?/*a»'«'Cf»''  fiTfTpf^av  MaKf86vas.  At  Cyzicus  the 
Roman  citizens  seem  to  have  been  enrolled  in  the  two  tribes  Sebas- 
teis  and  loulieis:  Athen.  Mitth.,  1901,  p.  125  ff.  In  strict  law  the  as- 
sumption of  any  other  citizenship  was  fatal  to  the  Roman  citizenship 
(Mommsen,  St.  R.,  iii.,  47  ff. ;  Cicero,  Balb.,  xii.,  30 ;  Athen.  Mitth.,  igoa, 
p.  113);  but  under  the  Empire  it  became  usual  to  admit  resident 
Romans  in  many  Eastern  cities  as  avixnoXirevofifvoi. 

'Josephus,  Ant.  Jud.,  xii.,  3,  2  (§  126),  a^iovvTmp,  el  o-vyyfvfjs  (i<r\v 
avTo7s  'lovbaloi,  (re^etr^at  rovs  Ibiovs  avrav  dtovs'.    Compare  xvi.,  2,  5 

(§  59). 

^° Contemporary  Review^  March,  igoi,  in  a  paper  on  "The  States- 
manship of  Paul ". 

"One  might  quote  from  modern  New  Testament  scholars  flatly 
contradictory  statements.  They  assume  that  Paul's  case  might  be 
a  solitary  one  in  Tarsus.  But  such  a  view  will  not  bear  scrutiny. 
Professor  Schiirer  is  agreed  on  this,  and  quotes  with  approval  the 
words  used  by  the  present  writer  in  Expositor  (Hastings'  Dictionary, 
v.,  p.  105). 

^^  Gesch.  des  Jud.  Volkes,  etc.,  ii.,  p.  541  f.  I  quote  the  second 
edition,  not  possessing  nor  having  access  to  the  third. 

"Josephus,  Antiq.Jud.,  xii.,  3,  2,  §  125  f. ;  xvi.,  2,  5,  §  59. 

"See  the  inscription,  Lebas-Waddington,  i^6a;  Michel,  496; 
Dittenberger,  253. 

*"  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  ii.,  pp.  538,  667  fF. 

"  St.  Paul  the  Trav.,  pp.  264,  287. 

""Ibid.,  p.  32.  It  is  strange  that  this  translation,  which  the 
language  of  Asia  Minor  inscriptions  makes  certain,  has  not  suggested 
itself  to  the  commentators  and  seems  still  ignored  by  them. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XIII. 

*  White  colour,  pp.  305,  386 :  Stephanephoroi^  Cities  and  Bishoprics 
of  Phrygia,  i.,  p.  55. 

'  Cisia  Mystica,  Fig.  24,  p.  287. 

•The  commentators  seem  to  assume  that  the  term  "debtor "in 
Rom.  i.  14  has  lost  all  its  strict  force,  and  that  St.  Paul  is  merely 


440  Notes  on  Chapters  XIII.^  XIV, 

expressing  his  strong  sense  of  duty  as  a  Christian  to  try  to  convert 
the  Pagan  world.  But  it  is  a  false  and  ruinous  procedure  to  whittle 
away  the  meaning  in  that  way.  Terms  must  be  taken  in  their  proper 
sense.  No  man  can  be  made  a  debtor,  except  by  receiving  what  he 
is  bound  to  repay.  Unless  St.  Paul  had  meant  what  lies  in  the  word 
"debtor,"  he  would  not  have  used  the  term,  but  expressed  himself 
otherwise.  To  illustrate  Rom.  i.  14,  compare  Rom.  xv.  27,  where  St. 
Paul's  own  Churches  are  said  to  be  the  debtors  of  the  poor  Christians 
of  Jerusalem,  having  received  much  from  them  and  being  therefore 
bound  to  repay,  even  by  money. 

*  I  can  feel  no  doubt  that  Lightfoot  and  Zahn  are  right  in  accept- 
ing this  text.  Hilgenfeld  prefers  the  majority  of  MSS.,  which  insert 
ovK  before  anh  a-iyrjs  TrpoeXOmv,  a  reading  which  misses  all  that  is  most 
characteristic  of  Ignatius,  and  can  be  preferred  only  by  one  who  is 
not  able  "  to  hearken  to  the  Silence  "  of  Ignatius. 

'The  term  mystery  occurs,  Mark  iv.  11;  Matthew  xiii.  11;  Luke 
viii.  10;  four  times  in  Revelation,  and  twenty-one  times  in  the 
Pauline  Epistles.  My  friend  Professor  A.  Souter  points  out  to  me  that 
there  is  an  admirable  excursus  on  nvcrrripwv  in  the  Dean  of  West- 
minster's Bphesians  (Lond.,  1903 ;  and  ed.,  1904). 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XIV. 

*  Laodicea  was  injured  by  an  earthquake  in  a.d.  60,  as  Tacitu3, 
Annals,  xiv.,  27,  says.  Eusebius  dates  the  earthquake  after  the  fire 
of  Rome,  a.d.  64. 

2 "Roads  and  Travel  in  New  Testament  Times,"  in  Dr.  Hastings' 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  v.,  p.  383  ff. 

^Loc.  cit.,  p.  389. 

*0n  the  title  of  Magnesia  see  the  present  writer's  Cities  and  Bish, 
of  Phrygia,  ii.,  p.  429  (where  the  mention  of  Philadelphia  in  a  foot- 
note should  be  deleted,  as  he  has  long  recognised).  At  a  later 
time,  towards  a.d.  200,  both  Thyatira  and  Philadelphia  grew  much 
wealthier,  and  were  recognised  by  imperial  favour  as  of  higher  im- 
portance. 

^ "  Roads  and  Travel  in  New  Testament  Times,"  etc.,  p.  382  £ 

*  Hastings'  Dictionary,  iv.,  p.  18. 

'  After  this  was  first  printed,  the  writer  saw  Professor  Harnack's 
article  in  the  Berlin  Akad.  Sitzungsberichte,  1901,  p.  810  ff.,  which  goes 
as  far  as  existing  records  permit  in  preparing  for  the  answering  of 
the  question. 


Notes  on  Chapters  XIV.,  XV.  441 

'  In  face  of  these  frequently  quoted  facts,  it  is  quite  extraordinary 
how  modern  scholars  continue  to  repeat  that  Philippi  could  not  style 
itself  the  "  first  city  "  of  its  district  (Acts  xvi.  12),  because  that  rank  and 
title  belonged  to  Amphipolis.  Such  an  argument  is  a  mere  modernism, 
and  possesses  no  meaning  or  validity  when  applied  to  the  first  cen- 
tury. Philippi  as  a  Roman  Colonia  could  not  but  be  in  a  sense,  and 
claim  to  be  in  every  sense,  "first  in  the  district".  Yet  this  striking 
piece  of  local  truth  is  obscured  by  writer  after  writer,  repeating  that 
tralaticious  error,  which  appears  even  in  the  otherwise  excellent 
article  on  Philippi  in  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible, 


NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XV. 

»The  results  of  the  article  on  "  Roads  and  Travel  in  New  Testa- 
ment Times,"  published  in  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  vol. 
v.,  pp.  375-403,  are  assumed  throughout. 

*  "  Roads  and  Travel  in  New  Testament  Times,"  p.  381  f. 

*The  Post  Road  of  the  first  century  may  also  be  called  the  Over- 
land Route  :  its  course  to  the  Eastern  Provinces  was  by  Brundisium, 
Dyrrhachium,  Thessalonica,  Neapolis  (for  Philippi),  Troas,  Perga- 
mum,  Philadelphia,  Akmonia,  Julia-Ipsos,  Philomelion,  to  Tarsus, 
Syrian  Antioch,  Caesareia  of  Palestine,  and  Alexandria.  The  Central 
Route  went  by  Brundisium,  Corinth,  Ephesus,  Magnesia,  Tralleis, 
Laodicea,  Apameia,  Pisidian  Antioch  (or  Julia-Ipsos  and  Philo- 
melion), Iconium  to  Tarsus,  Syrian  Antioch,  etc.  See  "  Roads  and 
Travel  in  New  Testament  Times,"  pp.  383-7. 

*Lydia  had  entirely  lost  its  own  tongue,  and  spoke  only  Greek,  as 
Strabo  mentions  about  a.d.  20. 

"Aristides,  Or.,  xxii.,  475  (i.,  p.  441),  mentions  that  the  word  Asia 
was  sometimes  used  in  this  sense,  including  the  coast-valleys  and 
part  of  Phrygia  along  the  great  road  from  Laodicea  to  Apameia : 
'AfTiav  TT]v  /if'xP'  Maidvdpov  nijyiou.  He  adds  that  Asia  was  also  used 
to  indicate  the  entire  Province  or  the  entire  continent;  and  he  im- 
plies that  there  were  only  those  three  geographical  meanings  of  the 
term.  He  does  not  admit  that  Asia  was  ever  used  to  indicate  Lydia 
and  the  coast  lands  without  Phrygia  (as  Professor  Blass  maintains 
that  it  was,  in  his  note  on  Acts  xvi.  8). 

8 "  Roads  and  Travel  in  New  Testament  Times,"  pp.  384,  389. 

'  Ibid.,  p.  384. 

8  Unfortunately,  the  system  of  circuits  is  not  described  in  the 
article  on  "  Roads  and  Travel  in  New  Testament  Times,"  mentioned 


442     Notes  on  Chapters  XV.,  XVI.,  XVII, 

above ;   the  whole  subject  became  clear  as  a  result  of  the  studies 
undertaken  for  that  article,  but  not  in  time  to  be  incorporated  in  it 

*  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  ii.,  pp.  510  f.,  715, 
^"Ibid. 

"/6t<;.,  p.  556. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XVI. 

*  A  fuller  statement  is  given  in  the  Expositor,  Feb.,  1901,  p.  X03  ff. 

*  Expositor,  loc,  cit, 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XVII. 

*  Authorities  may  be  found  quoted  in  the  account  of  Diana  of  the 
Ephesians,  and  of  the  history  of  Ephesus,  in  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary. 

'E,  Curtius,  Beitrdge  zur  Geschichte  und  Topographic  Kkinasiens, 
Berlin. 

^Historical  Geography  of  Asia  Minor,  p,  no, 

*  See  Panaghia  Capouli  ou  Maison  de  la  S.  Vierge  (Oudin,  Paris,  1896), 
and  Gabrielovich,  Ephise  ou  Jerusalem  Tombeau  de  la  S.  Vierge  (Oudin, 
Paris,  1897). 

■*  This  subject  is  treated  more  fully  in  an  article  on  the  "  Religion 
of  Greece  and  Asia  Minor "  published  in  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary 
of  the  Bible,  vol.  v.,  especially  pp.  116  f.,  122  f. 

'The  same  delight  was  characteristic  of  Pelasgian  religion  gener- 
ally, as  is  maintained  in  the  article  quoted  in  the  preceding  note. 

'  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  i.,  p,  723a. 

8  Two  hours  is  mentioned  according  to  the  ancient  rule  of  counting, 
that  anything  above  one  is  called  roundly  two :  see  Hastings'  Dic- 
tionary of  the  Bible,  v.,  p.  474.  On  the  street.  Church  in  the  Roman 
Empire,  p.  153. 

"  Hastings'  Dictionary,  v.,  p.  399. 

*»  Asclepios  Soter  at  Dionysopolis  (a  Pergamenian  foundation  in 
Phrygia),  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  i.,  p.  146,  No.  35  ;  at 
Acmonia,  see  note  11  to  this  chapter.  Dionysos  Kathegemon  at 
Acmonia,  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  ii.,  p.  644,  No.  546,  where 
also  Teos,  Thyatira,  Baris,  and  Herakleia  of  Caria,  are  quoted.  On 
Dionysos  as  apxqyos  tov  yivovs  of  the  Attalid  kings  see  Prott  in  Mit- 
theilungen  Inst,  Athen.,  1902,  p.  162. 

^^ Revue  des  Etudes  Anciennes,  1901,  p.  273  f.,  and  on  the  date,  ibid.^ 
Z902,  p.  269.     See  below,  p.  393. 

"  Philostratus,  Vit.  ApolL,  viii.,  7,  38. 


Notes  on  Chapters  XVII.,  XVIII.,  XIX.     443 

•'See  Canon  Hicks,  Greek  Inscriptions  of  the  British  Museum,  iii., 
p.  68  f.,  for  a  full  review  of  the  evidence.  Our  conclusions  differ  in 
some  respects. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XYHI. 

*  It  is  printed  by  Parthey  as  Appendix  I.  to  his  edition  of  Hierocles 
and  the  lists  of  Byzantine  bishoprics. 

*  Ignat.  Eph.  §  9 :  see  Expositor,  Feb.,  1904,  p.  84. 

'  (KfWev,  from  yonder,  referring  to  some  place  unmentioned  which 
was  much  in  his  own  mind,  and  which  would  naturally  spring  to  the 
mind  of  the  Ephesian  readers.  There  was  only  one  place  which  the 
Ephesians  would  naturally  connect  with  Ignatius,  when  he  mentioned 
no  name ;  and  that  was  Syrian  Antioch :  cp.  rav  tKei  Tncrrmv  at  the 
end  of  the  letter  (Syria  is  there  named  in  the  context).  Lightfoot 
suggests  that  Ignatius  meant  "yonder"  as  Philadelphia;  but  there 
was  no  reason  why  such  a  reference  should  have  been  intelligible  to 
the  readers  in  Ephesus. 

*  On  this  fact,  and  the  reason  for  it  lying  in  the  position  of  women 
and  the  consequent  want  of  any  true  home  education,  see  Histor. 
Comm.  on  Epistle  to  Galations,  p.  388. 

"On  the  subject  see  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  vol.  v.,  p.  113. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XIX. 

*  In  British  Monthly^  1901,  Dec,  p.  17.  See  art.  "Smyrna"  in 
Hastings'  Dictionary,  iv.,  p.  553,  where  the  history  is  briefly  de- 
scribed, with  references  to  the  ancient  authorities. 

"Aristides  describes  Smyrna  in  Orations,  xv.,  xx.-xxii.  and  xli. 
Philostratus,  Vit.  Apoll.  Tyan.,  iv.,  7  f. ;  viii.,  24. 

"Aristides,  Or.,  xx.,  457  (i.,  p.  425,  Dindorf);  xv.,  404  (i.,  p.  374); 
xli.,  294  (i.,  p.  766) ;  Brilliance,  pp.  425  and  380. 

*  Id.,  XV.,  405  (i.,  p.  375,  Dindorf). 
»W.,  xxi.,  471  (i.,  p.  437):  cp.  i.,  p.  443. 

*  Private  communication  from  M.  Fontrier.  The  present  writer 
had  thought  previously  that  this  temple  was  on  the  western  hill  (see 
article  in  Hastings'  Dictionary),  in  which  case  the  line  of  the  street 
would  be  the  same  in  its  east  and  middle  portion  and  would  fulfil 
the  conditions  nearly  as  well. 

'  ofiovota  araatd^ova-a,  Vit.  Apoll.,  iv.,  8.  Aristides  XV.,  410  (i.,  p. 
380) ;  XX.,  456  (i.,  p.  425) :  compare  the  description  in  i.,  p.  374,  of  the 
anification  of  all  the  parts  of  the  city. 

*See  an  article  on  "The  Religion  of  Greece  and  Asia  Minor"  in 
Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  v.,  p.  139  (7). 


444      ^otes  on  Chapters  XX.,  XXL,  XXII. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XX. 

*  Anything  above  300  is  called  roundly  400,  according  to  the  prin- 
ciple mentioned  in  note  8  to  chapter  xvii.  The  actual  number  was 
less  than  320. 

"The  inscription  is  published  in  the  Mittheilungen  des  deutschen 
Instituts  zu  Athen,  vii.,  p.  179. 

^CIG  3148,  belonging  to  the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Hadrian. 

*  In  chapter  xii.  above  :  see  also  the  Expository  Jan.,  1902,  p.  22  f., 
and  Feb.,  i  02,  p.  92  f.  It  is  extremely  improbable  that  even  the 
most  degraded  Jews  (with  the  rarest  exceptions)  had  ever  forsworn 
their  religion  openly  and  professedly.  Even  the  worst  among  them 
were  full  of  the  pride  of  race  and  the  consciousness  of  living  on  a 
higher  plane  than  the  ordinary  pagans.  The  present  writer  wrongly 
assumed  as  certain  (in  Hastings*  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  iv.,  p.  555fl) 
that  the  Jews  of  Smyrna  were  all  resident  strangers.  The  point  is 
uncertain  ;  but  the  statement  on  p.  272,  1.  25  f.,  is  more  probable. 

^  See  the  article  on  "  Days,  Hours  and  Dates "  in  Dr.  Hastings' 
Dictionary  0/  the  Bible,  v.,  p.  478. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XXI. 

*  The  principal  references  to  ancient  literature  may  be  found  in 
the  sketch  of  the  history  of  Pergamum  in  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary. 

2  The  best  account  of  the  coins  of  the  Commune  is  still  to  be  found 
in  Finder's  old  treatise  iib.  d.  Cistophoren,  etc. 

""  Religion  of  Greece  and  Asia  Minor"  in  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary 
of  the  Bible,  v.,  pp.  114-8. 

*  See  von  Prott  on  Dionysos  Kathegemon  in  Mittheilungen  Inst. 
A  then,  1902,  p.  162. 

'See  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  v.,  p.  no  ff.,  where  the  view 
is  worked  out  in  detail  that  the  oldest  Pelasgian  or  early  Mycen£ean 
form  of  the  religion  of  the  Greek  lands  was  kindred  in  type  to  the 
Anatolian ;  and  that,  as  Hellenic  thought  was  developed,  so  religion 
in  Greece  was  Hellenised. 

®  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  v.,  p.  115. 

'  Church  in  the  Roman  Empire,  p.  324. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XXII. 

^St.  Paul  the  Traveller,  p.  230  f. 

'Some  facts  and  references  are  given  in  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of 
Phrygia,  i.,  p.  76  f. 

^  Quarterly  Statement  of  the  Palestine  Exploration  Fund. 


Notes  on  Chapters  XXI I.  to  XXVI.      445 


*The  Rev.  F.  E.  Toyne,  Bournemouth. 

•There  is  some  doubt  whether  the  date  was  117  or  129. 

•Kai  ravra  re  ovTas  fireirpanTO  Koi  t6  frvvdrjfia  iraprjv  dpaKoXovv,  (py<f 
ami  8fi$avTos  OTi  iroX\S}U  tveica  irporjyayes  fls  /xeaov  if  ^av(ir]p.(v  iv  Tois 
Xoyotf ,  Kai  yivowTO  uvttjkooi  tuv  KptiTTOviov  ol  TeXewraroi.     Ldlta,  p.  6g  I. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XXIII. 

*The  ancient  authorities  are  quoted  more  fully  in  Dr.  Hastings' 
Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  iv.,  p.  757  ff. 

''See  note  3  on  chapter  xv. 

*The  expression  Trjs  ^(^aarrelov  koi  Tvpifivrjov  iravrjyvptas  is  used 
(an  excellent  parallel  to  rfjv  ^pvylav  koL  TaXaTiKrju  xa>pav).  On  the 
other  hand  riov  2f jUaaroiu  Tvpipvrjap  dyavav  is  used  without  Kai. 

*Josephus,  Ant.  Jud.,  xii.,  33,  §  iig.     See  pp.  131  ff.,  146  ff. 

'Schiirer  die  Prophetin  Isabel  in  Thyatira  in  Abhandl.  Weizsdcker 
gewidmet  1892.     See  p.  337. 

^Thyatira  surrendered  to  the  Romans  in  190  B.C.  It  was  occupied 
by  Aristonicus  during  his  revolt  in  133-2. 

'jD«  rebus  Thyatirenorum  (Paris,  1893),  p.  93. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XXIV. 

*0n  charities  in  the  early  Church,  see  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of 
Phrygia,  ii.,  p.  546. 

*  It  seems  probable,  as  stated  in  the  article  on  the  country  Lydia 
in  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  that  Lydia  was  only  applied 
to  her  as  a  secondary  name  or  epithet  "the  Lydian,"  and  that  either 
Syntyche  or  Euodia,  Phil.  iv.  2,  was  her  primary  name :  the  second- 
ary name  was  in  this  case  (as  often)  the  commonly  used  and  familiar 
appellation  like  Priscilla  for  Prisca,  Silas  for  Silvanus,  ApoUos  for 
Apollonius. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XXV. 

*  References  to  ancient  authorities  in  Hastings'  Dictionary,  iv., 
art.  "  Sardis  ". 

*  I  have  not  seen  the  east  face  from  a  near  point. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XXVI. 

*The  A.  V.  must  at  this  point  be  considered  truer  to  the  spirit  of 
the  passage  than  the  R.  V. 

*This  peculiar  people  is  described  in  Impressions  of  Turkey,  p.  268: 
they  have  retained  strange  customs,  some  strongly  pagan  in  character. 


446     Notes  on  Chapters  XXVI L,  XXIX.,  XXX. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XXVII. 

*  Hastings'  Dictionary,  art.  "  Philadelphia  **, 
'Seep.  395. 

'On  this  class  of  monuments  see  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia^ 
i.,  ch.  iv. 

*  Roads  and  Travel  in  New  Testament  Times,  in  Hastings'  Dictionary, 

v.,  p.  384  f- 

'Visitors  by  rail  or  road  get  only  this  too  close  view:  Plate  XII. 
is  taken  from  farther  out  in  the  plain,  where  the  hill  is  seen  to  stand 
clear  from  Mount  Tmolus. 

'Mr.  Head  in  his  Catalogue  of  Lydia  places  these  coins  earlier  (in 
the  second  or  first  century  B.C.);  but  I  cannot  believe  that  such  coins 
as  those  of  Hermippus  Archiereus  are  earlier  than  Augustus. 

'  A  priest  of  Germanicus  is  mentioned  on  coins  of  Claudius,  and 
the  priesthood  implies  a  temple.  This  foundation  undoubtedly  be- 
longs to  17-19  A.D.,  when  Germanicus  administered  the  East,  and 
conveyed  the  Imperial  charity  to  Philadelphia.     He  died  in  ig« 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XXIX. 

*The  locality  is  described  fully  in  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia, 
L,  ch.  i.  and  ii.  The  following  sentence  in  our  text  is  quoted  from 
p.  2. 

^  Impressions  of  Turkey,  p.  272  f. ;  compare  Dr.  Hastings' Dtcfiowary, 

v.,  p.  117- 

*  Dr.  Hastings'  Dictionary,  v.,  p.  109  ff. 

*  Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  i.,  p.  167  f. 

''Ibid.,  i.,  p.  52  (quoted  in  part  from  Dr.  Greenhill  in  Smith's  Diet. 
Gr.  Rom.  Biography. 

*  Galen,  De  sanitate  tuenda,  vi.,  12  (Kiihn,  vol.  vi.,  p.  439). 

'  Galen,  ibid.  The  tabloids,  Kollyria,  according  to  Stephanus, 
were,  strictly  speaking,  cylindrical  in  shape;  they  were  dry  prepara- 
tions, suited  to  reduce  to  powder.     See  also  p.  429. 

^Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  i.,  p.  34.  The  tribe  Attalis,  in 
Joxirnal  of  Hell.  Studies,  1897,  p.  408. 

•On  the  Jews  of  Hierapolis  see  Expositor,  Feb.,  1902,  p.  95  ff. 

NOTES  ON  CHAPTER  XXX. 

» Cities  and  Bishoprics  of  Phrygia,  ii.,  50a  H 

*Ibtd.,  p.  509  f. 

»  See  note  7  to  chapter  xxix. 


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